Anna Denham has recently joined the I Can Make It team at Disability Rights UK, having previously supported the organisation with some of its other work.
Her main task is to engage local councils, as well as other interested organisations, with the I Can Make It campaign.
This meant that on Wednesday 2nd November Anna joined Leo Capella in going to the Local Government Procurement Expo 2016 at Kensington Olympia in London. We made new contacts who are keen to support us on I Can Make It including through providing information on ways that we can generate meetings with key decision makers.
We also caught up with existing contacts such as the Chartered Institute for Procurement and Supply who have agreed to feature us in their next newsletter. As a result, we may have opportunities to complement the training and resources we pass onto our champions and apprentices.
Finally, we found Gillian Askew’s (Head of Procurement Services at Yorkshire Purchasing Office) presentation on Social Value to be very good. Her presentation showed that that the Yorkshire Purchasing Office is highly committed to Social Value. All in all, it was a useful and exciting day strengthening our main approach.
We’ve also been featured in Insight Online, the RNIB’s magazine for professionals who work with children and young people with visual impairment as part of our efforts to recruit more young people with disabilities. In it our champion for the North East Jonathan Mears reflects on his experiences on the campaign, share some valuable tips on the success he’s had and makes a further call for more champions on the campaign.
So do look at Jonathan’s article and if you are 18-29, have a disability or health condition and want to join him in helping to improve the career prospects of yourself and other young disabled people, especially in Liverpool, Leeds, or Newcastle, then please get in touch with us on 0207 250 8193 or via leo.capella@disabilityrightsuk.org