Closing the Disability Employment Gap

Backing enterprising people with ambitions to improve the job market

Unemployment has been steadily falling in the UK, yet not everyone who wants to work can gain appropriate, meaningful work. According to Scope, disabled people are twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled people.

We know that people have enterprising ideas to change this and transform employment for disabled people. We have partnered with Scope, to back social entrepreneurs across the UK with support to start and grow their ideas, projects or ventures.

How can we support you?

We're offering you two levels of support, our Do It awards for those starting up and our Grow It awards for those looking to expand their impact.

Cally Munchy at the City Hall

Do It

Our Do It awards offer up to £5,000 of funding, alongside a tailored package of support so that you can create a social venture to tackle any social problem you’re passionate about fixing.

SoFab Sports printing merchandise

Grow It

For those at the right stage, Grow It awards offer up to £15,000 of funding, also alongside a tailored package of support to help your social venture grow to the next level.

 

Criteria

To be eligible your idea must:

  • Have a real social impact
  • Be focused on improving employment or employability outcomes for disabled people
  • Fulfil a clear need and demand
  • Have clear outputs and goals
  • Provide a learning experience or opportunity
  • Beneficiaries must be UK based

What do we mean by disabled?

We use The Equality Act 2010 as a reference. That defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

‘Long-term’ is defined as lasting or expecting to last for at least 12 months.

Ideas and ventures are not eligible for an award if they:

  • Are part of your paid employment
  • Involve political or religious campaigning
  • Involve activities outside of the law or against public policy, or anything that encourages ethnic, religious or commercial disharmony
  • Are mainly for people to achieve academic qualifications
  • Are to fund living expenses

Apply for support

To start your application please submit an expression of interest.

Should your expression of interest pass our initial assessment you will be sent further application documents to complete along with a detailed breakdown of the application process. Below are the key dates for 2018:

Expressions of Interest opens: 13th March 2019

Expressions of Interest deadline 19th July 2019

Application deadline 16th Aug 2019

Final decision meeting week commencing: 28th Oct 2019

Apply here

Other support

If you're social idea doesn't specifically transform the job market for disabled people we can still help you. We provide three levels of early stage support, designed to match your growth as a social entrepreneur. Many of the people we support progress through different stages of awards as their venture grows. 

Try it image.

Try it

Our Try It award will help you on your first steps of testing...
Do It image.

Do It

Our Do it awards help make your idea for social change a...
Grow It image.

Grow It

The Grow It award is for social entrepreneurs looking to grow...
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Events

We host a series of events throughout the UK each year. From classes and conferences, seminars and workshops to networking events and training sessions.

Upcoming events

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Learning area

Looking for financial guidance? Want to sharpen your marketing skills? Access our range of guides in the learning area..

Visit our learning area

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