Embracing Diversity: an Equal-funded project

We also have a separate website for the Embracing Diversity project.

This page highlights some of the work undertaken on the Embracing Diversity projectpromoted by Bury EST and Stockport Employment Services. The project ran from 2002 until 2005 and was funded by the European Social Fund, Bury and Stockport Councils. Read more a detailed background document...

The main aims of the project were:

• To transfer the potential of our successful supported employment model to a wide range of disadvantaged groups in our communities.
  
• To increase the capacity of employers to recruit and retain a diverse workforce.
  
• To produce a template for Welfare to Work services across Greater Manchester.

We set up a supported employment service for young care-leavers and the local minority ethnic communities as well as our established disability services. We also piloted a job retention service in collaboration with Redbank health centre.

We worked closely with a range of local, regional and national employers to identify best practice in managing diversity. This learning happened both through 1 to 1 contact with employers and the formation of employer forums in both Bury and Stockport.

We marketed the concept of supported employment widely and exhibited or presented at a wide range of conferences and events, including the CIPD annual conference, Learning Disability Today and the 2005 conference of the European Union of Supported Employment.

We kept contact and met regularly with transnational partners in Spain (Zamora) and Italy (Reggio Emilia).

Several documents were produced including the case studies and Findings paper on our case studies page.

We will post a project evaluation shortly.