My son Ben is a client of Alison’s and she helped support Ben into work with the Environment Agency in Yorkshire.
His work has really helped to develop his confidence speaking with people and building relationships. We recently moved from the house that Ben has lived in all his life to a very small village by the sea. As you can imagine this was a big move for Ben and one that we spent a long time thinking about as we still wanted him to continue in his job. His employer was very supportive and made sure that Ben could work his two days side by side so that we could commute easily.
Due to Ben’s increased confidence he decided he would also like to help out in our village tea room. He has made so many friends and been such an asset to have around that we decided to arrange a job-swap fundraising event in support of WorkFit. I myself work in the tea room so my husband and I and my boss and her partner swapped roles… they ran the tea room for a couple of hours while we made bird houses in the garden to sell to raise the money. Despite the fact that the weather wasn’t great, we managed to raise £95 pounds thanks to the generosity of our customers. Everyone had a good laugh and our customers were very good sports, despite the state of their soup and coffees.
We raised a lot of awareness for WorkFit and the skills that people with Down’s syndrome have to offer in the workplace and hopefully more businesses will think about getting involved. We invited the local paper to come down and take a picture and they wrote a small article about the WorkFit programme. We are planning to do more fundraising events later in the year.
Thank you for all the support that the Down’s Syndrome Association and the WorkFit programme provides to our families and the hard-work and commitment that you offer.
WorkFit supports people with Down’s syndrome to access meaningful work opportunities that can benefit the rest of their lives. For more information about WorkFit please contact the team on 0333 12 12 300 or email us on dsworkfit@downs-syndrome.org.uk
For more information visit the WorkFit website: www.dsworkfit.org.uk
For more information about WorkFit please contact the team on 0333 12 12 300 or email us on dsworkfit@downs-syndrome.org.uk
For more information visit the WorkFit website: www.dsworkfit.org.uk