Written by SIC: Transforming the workplace for disabled professionals
We hooked up with Alice Hargreaves and Rachael Mole (SIC) at 1 Mill Street to talk about their new business, and to find out why businesses need to do more for disabled people.
Watch the interview below, or read on.
About SIC
Providing access to training for people with impairments and chronic illnesses to get into and thrive in work, along with employer services, equipping businesses with the expertise to support them.
SIC are supported by the Creative Futures Incubator, offering an exciting opportunity for any early-stage
and start-up to develop entrepreneurial skills and test and launch their creative & digital business from 1 Mill Street, in Leamington Spa. Applications are now open. For business support click here: https://warwickinnovationdistrict.com…
Interview
I’m Alice, I am a white woman with blonde, pink hair, I’m wearing grey trousers, a black top with a red checked shirt on top, and I’m looking at the camera. Hi, I’m Rachael, I’m a white woman in her 20s, wearing a blue and white striped shirt, dark blue jeans, I’ve got long brown hair and I’m also looking at the camera.
So, we are a social enterprise that has the goal of closing the disability employment gap and we do that two ways – by educating the employers to do better, and be more accessible, and also providing training and support to the community that we serve.
It’s been calculated that businesses in the UK actually miss out on two billion pounds per month by ignoring the needs of their disabled customers, and if you don’t think you’ve got disabled customers – you need to check yourself on that, because you absolutely 100% do. One in five people are disabled, but realistically it’s a lot more than that.
The dream for SIC is to make disability one of the core pillars of DNI strategy for organisations, and make sure that disability is on the agenda for organisations across the UK, to support disabled people in the workplace. That then opens the door to inclusive and accessible wider societies for the disabled community.
We are absolutely there to support, we run a monthly career clinic which is an absolutely fantastic opportunity for people to come online, drop in, speak about any kind of career issue that they might be having.
Our online Business Centre is launching for general release in July. It’s an opportunity for employers of any size, solo entrepreneurs, micro businesses, all the way to SMEs to access monthly topics on a wide range of things to do with disability, and inclusion in the workplace.
It’s an annual membership, sign up, get involved with the community: guides, resources, events, we bring in the experts, and it’s really a place to start thinking about what do inclusive work cultures look like? And how can I build a better system, policies, access for any disabled members of staff, now, or disabled members of staff in the future.
It’s just been fantastic to be able to network with other businesses, and also as part of the program being introduced to other people, whether it’s business leaders, academics, Warwick University. Having conversations with other business leaders, being able to shape the conversations that we’re having to actually shape how we’re growing as an organisation.
Within 1 Mill Street as well, there’s a lot of support for you, applying for grants, funding opportunities, and also just the businesses here at Mill Street are really open to attending, not only events that we run but learning from us as well.
We’re really looking forward to seeing what we can make of ourselves here.
More about SIC visit: https://sicofficial.co.uk/