Social Objectives
Bilby Support C.I.C.
Supporting neurodivergent people into the
workplace.
Many neurodivergent people face extra barriers gaining and keeping employment often due to inflexible workplaces and a lack of understanding about neurodiversity and disability.
Bilby Support will aim to employ neurodivergent people in a supportive working environment, giving them an opportunity to gain employment experience and transferable skills.
1. Employment opportunities: At least 75% of the employees will be neurodivergent. Stigma and discrimination can make finding employment more difficult when part of this community. Work can lead to greater financial stability, and overall well-being for the employees and their families.
2. Flexibility: Remote work and flexible work arrangements can be particularly beneficial for neurodivergent individuals who may need accommodations or adjustments in their work environment.
3. Supportive work environment: By creating a supportive and inclusive work environment, Bilby Support aim for neurodivergent individuals to feel valued and accepted for who they are.
4. Skills development: Bilby Support will develop training programs that help neurodivergent individuals to develop new skills and build confidence in their abilities.
5. Knowledge: As many customers are likely to be people or organisations who work with neurodivergent people the work itself will help the employee gain excellent knowledge. They may be reading research before it is published
or getting familiar with social injustices that we often face. This may inspire Bilby Support employees to go on to work in roles supporting other neurodivergent people, providing long term benefit to our community.
6. Community: Working with Bilby Support can provide a sense of community and belonging, which can be particularly important for those who may feel isolated or marginalised in other settings.
7. An indirect benefit to the community is the likelihood of attracting customers who work in the field of disability and neurodiversity (e.g. disability researchers or care providers) which means opportunity to improve the quality
of the clients’ work.
Objectives of the type of services
The kind of services that Bilby Support will be offering to the public will appeal to those who work in academia or support services for disabled and/or neurodivergent people.
An example of the work would be, proofreading and/or reviewing research and will likely be taken up by those who are researching neurodiversity as getting views from the community is an important part of research in this field.
The services will be open to everyone, it will include support offered by volunteers and any surplus income will be used for offering free services to neurodivergent people who need support with their own academic journey, or perhaps legal disputes, or difficulties accessing disability benefits.
The services that Bilby Support will be offering can often be funded via ‘Disabled Students Allowance’ or ‘Access To Work’, to name two sources of funding.
Bilby Support is currently applying to become a recognised supplier to funding agencies such as these. Making Bilby Support services accessible to those on low Incomes.
Our Features
Bilby Support will be applying for funding to be able to offer free services to
neurodivergent people who want to use our services but cannot afford them.
Services Currently Offered
Proofreading – This service will be available to any member of the public but is expected to be used most frequently by neurodivergent people such as
dyslexic students or employees. It will be paid for privately by the client or they may have funding via access to work.
There is also a demand for free proofreading for neurodivergent people who
find themselves in legal disputes with services such as education or social
services. Bilby support plans to provide a free service by using volunteers,
applying for funding, and by using surplus from the paid offering.
Transcribing – This service will be available to any member of the public as a
paid service, but the founder of Bilby Support is aware there is a large demand in academic research. The use of a social enterprise that supports the employment of neurodivergent individuals is expected to appeal to
neurodiversity and disability researchers, in particular.
There is also a need for free transcriptions for neurodivergent people who find themselves in legal disputes or other difficult situations with services such as education or social services. A free service will also be provided by using volunteers, applying for funding, and by using surplus from the paid offering. An example may be when an autistic parent has been accused of fabricating or inducing illness in their child. They may have to attend meetings with social services but perhaps cannot process information quickly enough to take notes and respond. Recording meetings and getting transcriptions will support them when preparing a response.
Expert reviews – This service will be available to any member of the public as a paid service, but it is expected that services and researchers who work in the field of disability or neurodiversity will be the main customers. Bilby support hopes to gain a large number of potential employees who are experts by lived experience alone or lived experience alongside professional experience and/or academic qualifications. When services want to involve ‘experts by experience’ in their work it will be useful for them to come to an organisation
like Bilby Support knowing that the people they use will be employed by a social enterprise run by neurodivergent people who will support them with any employment issues.
This expert review service in particular benefits the neurodivergent community by improving the outputs of research and services provided to them. Involving the community in design of services and research is essential both ethically and epistemically. Bilby support will be enabling this process to
be accessible to more neurodivergent people.
Bilby support do not anticipate there will be a need to provide free expert review services, but if there were occasions where free access to expert reviews would benefit the neurodivergent community it would be considered in line with their policy on providing free services.