I Can Make It formally welcomes some experienced champions

Tue,11 July 2017
News Employment

It’s always nice to see our I Can Make It champions coming to our office at CAN Mezzanine and particularly in order to formally welcome them into the campaign.

Two of our Champions together. From L-R Heather Richardson, champion for I Can Make It in Essex, and Hannah Ross, champion for I Can Make It in Greater Manchester and Liverpool

On Friday 7th July two of our experienced champions, Heather Richardson who represents Essex and Hannah Ross who represents Liverpool, did exactly that, coming to visit us for an induction day. They came away with techniques and tasks to help them take the campaign forward in their target areas. We’re pleased with the work that they’ve done to date and are looking forward to working with them in the future to open up new job opportunities for young disabled people.

Induction wise, this Friday (14th July) we’ll be formally welcoming Bethany Young, our Champion for Hertfordshire, into the campaign, as well as discussing how we can take her work to date with Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) forward and provide a wider context to the work that she’s been doing with the council. Further to this Bethany and our Research and Engagement Officer, Anna Denham, met with Martha Goodhill, HCC’s Head of Equality and Diversity, and Paul Drake, Head of Procurement, on Tuesday 11th July. This was in order to discuss job opportunities that could be opened up through the pipeline of procurement through the council. We look forward to working closely with the department of procurement, and on 25th July will attend a meeting of HCC’s Procurement Board.

The day before that, Leo Capella and Philip Connolly will be meeting with James Palmer, the Mayor for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. We aim to make the case for the combined authority to adopt I Can Make It’s approach of using social value to open up new job opportunities for young disabled people.  

Finally, we’d like to say so long and thank you to Will Case, a champion for Greater Manchester. Will is standing down to focus on his new social enterprise Your Support Matters.  We’d like to thank Will for his valuable contribution to I Can Make It from the outset (for instance representing the campaign in meetings with Salford Council or featuring in this video) and wish him the very best on his new enterprise.

Our Champion for Greater Manchester Will Case, who will be standing down on 20th July