Today, Friday 28 June 2019, we are celebrating EmployAbility Day with the rest of the country. This year’s theme is ‘Closing the Gaps’, to highlight the tireless efforts of organisations across the UK who help to close employment gaps by supporting disabled people to enter, sustain or progress in work.
On Tuesday 25 June, we held our annual EmployAbility Making a Difference Awards at the beautiful venue that is Denbies Wine Estate, located in Dorking. Over the last year over 800 people have been supported to help them find or keep their job. A number of those individuals were recognised on the evening with ‘Outstanding Achievement’ awards, whilst a number of local businesses including Squires Garden Centre, West Halls Anchor Homes, The Entertainer Toy Store, Oxfam Bookshop and more.
Christina Earl, Senior Operations Manager at Surrey Choices told us:
This has been such an exciting week for Surrey Choices EmployAbility. On Tuesday we had our Making a Difference Awards where we celebrated 16 people and companies with some fantastic stories of amazing journeys to work and inspirational managers. On Thursday we are speaking at an event organised by the National Autistic Society Surrey branch, to over 60 autistic people and parents and carers to ensure they know where to get support to find that dream job. Finally on Friday (today) we are travelling to Birmingham for the National Learning Disability and Autism awards as two of our employment support specialists have been nominated for awards – Lifelong achievement and Support worker of the year. What a way to celebrate EmployAbility day. We are currently working with over 800 disabled people across Surrey to help them find or keep their jobs.
Make sure you follow us on social media for to see the pictures from this year’s EmployAbility Making a Difference Awards ceremony and to find out how our two colleagues got on in Birmingham with their award nominations!