Inclusion Works was a project focused on identifying new ways to help people with disabilities get jobs.

Many different organizations worked together to do this. We worked with with businesses, governments, other organizations of people with disabilities (OPDs), and other organizations like Sightsavers.

This project was paid for by the government of the United Kingdom (the UK).

The project ran for 3 years, from 2019 until 2022. The project ended at the end of June 2022.

Our Goals

The Inclusion Works project’s goals were:

  1. To help find new ways to support people with disabilities get jobs
  2. To get people to work together to do advocacy about including people with disabilities in work
  3. To get employers to try new things to make their workplaces more inclusive
  4. To train people with disabilities in new skills that will help them get jobs
  5. To help organizations led by people with disabilities get stronger 

These goals are important because people with disabilities are much less likely to have a real job for real pay than people without disabilities. This means it is difficult for people with disabilities to support their families, and businesses do not get the benefits of their skills.

Who took part?

Inclusion International worked with 5 of our members in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Bangladesh to help people with intellectual disabilities get jobs.

Many other organizations were also part of this project, like Sightsavers and the International Disability Alliance.

What activities did we do?

Our members worked in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Bangladesh to help make it easier for people with intellectual disabilities to get jobs.

They did this by training employers about inclusion, doing advocacy, and building skills of self-advocates.

During this project, our members:

  1. Worked with self-advocates to train over 100 employers about how to make their workplaces more inclusive
  2. Helped 95 self-advocates get training that will help them get a job
  3. Involved more than 130 self-advocates in discussions and advocacy about employment rights
  4. Trained over 50 organizations about how to make their programmes and work include people with intellectual disabilities better

Our members also supported their self-advocacy groups to do advocacy work in their communities.

We have really gained a lot of experience in terms of employment for persons with intellectual disablity. For the advocacy funding for self-advocates we are so excited to host workshops [where] self-advocates will get a platform to express their expectations to employers.”

Aziza Khan, Kenya

Outcomes

As part of this project we created: