We’ve Won! Belina GRoW scoops prestigious ERSA award

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Belina GRoW has triumphed at the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) Employability Awards 2021, winning the Team of the Year – Innovation category.

Now in their ninth year, the awards celebrate best practice across the employment support sector. From stand-out frontline staff, job seeking achievements and exemplary employers; to teams and communities pulling together in the most extraordinary of times, in 2021 the awards epitomise the very best of rising to ‘The Covid Employability Challenge’.

Belina GRoW’s award for innovation was in recognition of our GRoW App which has revolutionised employment support for our participants, moving them into work faster. The App is there 24 hours a day – it is immediate and interactive and means specialist work can be accessed by a much wider group than through physical venues.

You can watch a video about how our app is helping GRoW participants here: https://getreadyforwork.org/ersa-awards-the-grow-app-innovation/

We were pleased to share award with Joint Winners, Team Pie which is the newest venture from Unity Works which supports people with a learning disability to gain skills and jobs.

This year the awards, supported by lead sponsors Cognisoft and Clarion Futures, received 200 entries from across the UK. The winners were announced online on Thursday, November 25.

GRoW Founder and MD Liz Sewell FIEP said “We are so thrilled to have won this award and for our GRoW app to be recognized as making such a difference to our participants’ employability prospects.  We are building a community at GRoW and our app is absolutely central to that, it is enabling us to create stronger relationships and is improving engagement in a way we have not been able to do before.  We are so pleased to be able to share our success story with the whole employability sector as an inspirational message that embracing technology in the way that we have has enabled us to grow and achieve so much more for the people we are supporting.”

Elizabeth Taylor, ERSA CEO said: “The response to the ERSA Employability Awards has been extraordinary in this challenging year, and we are hugely impressed with the dedication and resourcefulness all the entrants have shown. The standard this year was beyond our expectations and we are immensely proud to announce our worthy winners.”

“Thank you to all those who entered – you should be incredibly proud of your achievements – and a huge well done to all the winners.”

  Belina Get Ready for Work Programme Recognised at the 2019 ERSA National Employability Awards

Posted on by Liz Sewell

Belina GRoW has been highly commended for Innovation the 2019 ERSA Employability Awards.

The awards were announced at a special ceremony in London this week hosted by author and entrepreneur, Lucy Clayton, with a special message delivered by the Minister for Employment, Alok Sharma MP.

The GRoW programmeis for women who want to work part-time and is delivered in primary schools, children’s centre, with events run in school hours, often with on-site creche. As part of the approach the prorgamme is committed to employing people who require flexible working to reflect and inspire the participants. G4s nominated the project for the Award,

Now in its seventh year, the ERSA Employability Awards celebrate best practice across the employment support sectorand seek to demonstrate the day-to-day hard work and dedication of those working to improve the lives of jobseekers, communities and the wider workforce.

ERSA received nearly 150 entries across ten categories demonstrating the breadth of work in the sector.

This year’s winners were selected by an all-star panel of judges,  namelythe editor of The Sun’s employment page, Jane Hamilton, Phillip Blond, internationally recognised political thinker and Director of ResPublica senior Department for Work and Pensions official, Mark Staley and Winner of Adviser of the Year 2019, Tanya Weston of Genius Within.

ERSA’s Interim Chief Executive, Elizabeth Taylor, says:

‘On behalf of everyone at ERSA, I would like to say a huge congratulations to this year’s winners. We are delighted to celebrate the achievements of individuals and organisations across the employment support sector – from the frontline advisers supporting people towards employment, the jobseekers overcoming huge barriers to work and the organisations ready to give people that much needed chance. Thank you to everyone who entered this year’s awards.’

Minister for Employment, Alok Sharma, says:

“I want to thank and congratulate all of this year’s winners and runners-up, for all their fantastic work on behalf of jobseekers up and down the country.

We have more people in work than ever before, but projects like these are making sure we spread that opportunity even further and provide vital support to those looking for work.”

 

ENDS

Back to work after 16 years!

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Saeema Yusuf was planning to get back to work once her daughter had started full-time school.  In preparation, she joined the GROW Programme 2 years ago, giving her time to boost her skills and try to build her confidence into the world of work.  We spoke to Saeema about her journey with GRoW.

“Being a full-time mum to four children as well as a full-time carer can isolate you from the real world.  I found it very difficult to engage in any outside activities and always felt that I couldn’t do anything for myself but thanks to GRoW I found a way out.  GRoW was just what I needed, it helped to not only boost my confidence and conversational skills but made me realise that I can achieve anything I want to achieve.

GRoW brought me together with other women and we all helped each other in the course to talk about what we wanted to achieve and how to get there.  This led to practical advice on job applications, CVs and interviews. It helped me to focus on taking the next steps.

By the end of the programme, I took the initiative by applying for a position at Brunel University as a Student Information Adviser but unfortunately was not selected – for me, completing the application was a positive first step after 16 years out of the job market!

This year, I saw an ideal opportunity – working on the GRoW programme itself! I saw the job advert on the GRoW website and thought it was a great chance to practice my job search and application skills –  and if nothing else I would get some quality feedback. The application and interview was challenging but I used the techniques I learned on the programme, and I was delighted to be selected.

These days I am busier than ever.  I’m still a full-time mum and full-time carer, but now also a part-time Engagement Adviser.  My role involves networking with organisations in Hillingdon and making sure GRoW’s achievements are recognised. I get so much out of meeting amazing women who want to achieve more in their lives and helping them to choose training and skills that is right for them.

This job has also given me the opportunity to visit the Hillingdon Expo 2019 which was held at Brunel University and gave me the chance to put my skills to the test.  It was an amazing day and I learnt so much.

Recently, I took GRoW to Hillingdon’s Carer’s Fair 2019 which was the first time GRoW was in view of the public in this way.  We generated really good interest and made good connections with other organisations.

It’s been amazing not only taking part in the GRoW programme but working for GRoW and there’s lots of opportunities to come.

GROW is a rewarding programme to come on to and I’m so glad I took the chance to come on board. Thank you GRoW!!”

Suzanne’s Success Story

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Suzanne suffers from fibromyalgia, a debilitating and painful muscle condition. Until recently she was also the full-time carer for her sick son, and a lone parent mother to two children. She had not worked for a number of years.   When her son was well enough to return to school, Suzanne was considering her options about returning to work.  She was referred to the Get Ready for Work Programme: eager to set up a business, but without the knowledge of what to do or the confidence to start. In the six months since she joined she has: set up her own stall, where she sells her own products; set up a sales website where she sells online, and has a social media presence on Facebook and Instagram as Luna Wisdom.

In her own words:

“Because of my health problems I knew that working full time in an office was not an option for me. Setting up my own business seemed like the ideal scenario because it would give me the flexibility I needed to support my family as my son returned to school.  As I made my own jewellery, I already had ideas about what I wanted to do but the problem was that I had no direction and just didn’t know where to start!

“I heard about GRoW through the Job Centre and was drawn to them because they supported mums who wanted to work part-time. I was placed onto the ‘GRoW Your Own Business’ Workshop run by Mercedes Grant – another mum who had also been through the GRoW programme and set up her own business. Because they were run in school hours, I was able to attend all the sessions.

“The Workshop really helped me.  I was overwhelmed with ideas before I started. I am 10 years clean and sober from addiction and the promotion of self-care is very important to me.  I had begun practising Reiki 2 years before, practising on friends and family but I didn’t have the confidence to step out on my own.  I had so many ideas about my business, tailoring it towards natural healing and helping people return to their authentic self, to learn who they are and what they want, what their passions are and to discover what’s blocking them. Mercedes really helped me focus on what I needed to do to set up a VIABLE business.

“In the short bite-size sessions she showed me how to handle my own accounts, how to write a business plan and to do my marketing, but most of all she gave me the encouragement and the push I needed to believe that I could actually do it.

“In the last session Mercedes set me a challenge to run at least one stall before Christmas and just a month later, in November 2018 I set up my business Luna Wisdom.  I took a stall at the Uxbridge Craft Market and set up a website to promote my Reiki, jewellery and other products like my home-made bath bombs made with essential oils. I now run a stall every week.

“Most of my orders come from social media, which was something that I learned to use for marketing through GRoW. And what is clear is that the harder I work on my social media the more orders I get.

“I am now confident enough to be setting up meditation groups – and because of what I have been through I am making sure they are community based and low cost so that people like the me I was before I started can join in too.

‘I’m so happy to be working, doing something I really enjoy and also something that helps other people improve their wellbeing, I feel confident that I can develop a business that will support my family.

Liz Sewell FIEP GRoW Director adds: “Suzanne has been great to work with. Her barriers were high, but her determination was strong.   She attended all her sessions, doing her homework and saving money so that she could start her business without going into debt. Most new businesses fail and making a profit is hard.  Suzanne had to set her business up and make the dreaded move onto Universal Credit at the same time. It is a testament to her commitment that she is now making a profit and thinking how to expand.

“Belina has followed her story from her first stall and Suzanne has since returned to advise other mums at GRoW, helping them understand that it is having passion and starting small but thinking long-term that makes a difference. We featured her in the International Women’s Day edition of our Newsletter. Her story has also been acknowledged by her local JCP who are delighted by her success and promoted by G4S who have sent out her story to all their sub-contractors as an inspirational good news story. In fact, Suzanne is an inspiration to all her who hear her story.

“We believe that hers is a really significant achievement that shows how you can overcome barriers and still follow your dream, balance family life and create a business.”