We are finalists – Teamwork Trust are celebrating as awards season warms up

We are delighted to announce we are up for an award – unveiled as a finalist in the hotly contested Community Business of the Year category at the 2023 SME Northamptonshire Business Awards.

Wish us luck – the awards ceremony is in June 2023, we can’t wait.

We are extremely proud to be a finalist, but also not wholly surprised. Read on and find out why – here are just a few extracts from our awards nomination …

Our service users: We work hard to transform day-to-day living experiences into impactful learning opportunities and our service users help to steer and plan everything we do – a unique approach known in the sector as ‘co-production’. Our service users tell us what they want to do, what their development needs are and we support them to progress at every stage of their lives. Service users are part of our governance structure, attending trustee meetings and steering groups.

We think differently: At Teamwork Trust we believe it is our job to challenge traditional views of people who are supported, to ensure they play an inclusive role in our wider communities.  We work hard to ensure our service users are not passive recipients of social care. We help our service users overcome a multitude of barriers to be active participants and even leaders within their communities. 

Corporate partnerships: People with disabilities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed as people without disabilities  and 3 times as likely to be economically inactive. As part of our commitment to supporting our service users to gain education/employment experience, we provide a commercial outsourcing service to local /national businesses. All income is invested back into Teamwork to support our service users.

Digital: We are Northamptonshire’s specialist provider for digital skills for people with disabilities (since 2012) and we’ve been sharing our devices with community groups since the pandemic but now we are also acting as a data hub and providing data with those in need.

Disability inclusion: We take service users to jobs fairs, run employability/volunteering programmes and offer guidance to employers re how to make reasonable adjustments. We support disabled people and those with health conditions, including mental health conditions, to get into and stay in work.

Saving lives: People with learning difficulties are six times more likely to die of covid, so we’ve continued to support people to get vaccines and designed easy read guides to promote hand washing.

Tackling digital disadvantage: It isn’t ok that millions of disabled people are still digitally excluded. We share our devices with community groups, enabling people to develop digital skills.

Broadening Horizons: Our 2022/3 programme of speakers included a local councillor, litter picking group, social enterprise. A result - our service users asked for support with voting, some have joined the local Wombles group and we have partnered with Stagecoach to support people to travel safely.

Connecting with the community: We’ve trained service users to become qualified Peer Supporters so they can confidently welcome visitors and support new/prospective service users. This year our service users have co-produced and co-delivered wellbeing services and spoken at community events.