Steps Into Self Employment . . .

SAMEE (Support And Mentoring Enabling Entrepreneurship) is a regional charity with a mission to enable disabled people to escape poverty and gain further independence through successful self-employment start-up and support.
Teaching those with special educational needs and disabilities valuable self-employment skills, empowering them to create a role for themselves with an independent income.

You've Got This UK . . .

The SAMEE Charity is proud to offer the UK’s first bespoke supported self-employment internship programme for special educational needs learners, Inclusive learning that works for all.

Our ‘ Steps into Self-Employment '  programme has been accredited as a level 1 customised qualification by NCFE and is available to learners without the need for Maths and English.

About Us at You've Got This . . .

Empowering disabled people to achieve greater independence is ultimately one of our charities main goals . . .

Additionally as Disability Confident Leaders, our unique delivery style is a flexible mix of personalised 1:1 guidance and peer mentoring support.

Since 2016 we have worked with over 1000 disabled people and have given them mentoring, advice and guidance helping to support them with their aspirations, goals and opportunities to create a sustainable income.

This support can start during their education as we explore self-employment as a viable career option for those that may not attain the qualifications required for further/higher education, apprenticeship, or traditional employment opportunities.

To Help Enable Disabled People

So why was SAMEE founded :- After years of business mentoring for the Princes Trust, Sam applied for a position as a Business Adviser with a national organisation, who offered a generic package of business support over a set period of time.

Whilst delivering the European-funded guidance she recognised that the self-employment programmes offered did not meet the requirements of disabled people as they were not flexible or tailored to their individual needs.

Significantly many of the disabled people gave up on their aspiration of becoming self-employed as they were unable to work within the constraints of the funding . . .
Many were not ready to take the step into starting a self-employed venture and expressed concerns over the lack of emotional support in relation to their lives, health condition and financial needs.

Exploring self-employment as an option

Notably many of our clients said that exploring self-employment as an option, including the opportunities and challenges, was far more important to them than the structured workshops on marketing and accounting.
Mainly they wanted support & guidance coupled with someone to share their aspirations and fears with instead of a rigid programme of technical learning.

In light of this Sam started to research further into the self-employment information, advice and guidance available to disabled people nationally, ultimately discovering that there was very limited assistance if any at all available . . .
In most cases, the disabled person had to meet the requirements of the support offered rather than the support meeting the disabled person’s needs.

Sam’s concerns about formal self-employment support led her to think about starting an organisation that did just that . . .

One which met the needs of disabled people, communicated with them in a way that was accessible and created opportunities for them to aspire to greater things.

As a result she started SAMEE to address the needs of disabled people wanting to consider self-employment as a viable career option alongside their disability or long-term health condition - With the realisation that their abilities may change on a daily / weekly basis . . .

Enabling a holistic approach

Firstly Sam started by working with a small group helping enable disabled people, by developing tailor-made projects and bespoke resources and, through this continuing engagement and work, found that ‘consideration’ is the key word in all thoughts and processes to significantly enable disabled people move forward with their ambitions . . .

Furthermore the holistic needs of a disabled person are just as important to us, if not more so, than the formal self-employment support on offer from other tick in the box agencies.

Ultimately this is what has inspired us to start You've Got This . . .

Samee is a member of BASE.

BASE is the national voice for providers of specialist employment support.

Especially promoting the principles and delivery of high quality Supported Employment services and work to improve the employment rates of disabled people.

Further Info . . .

Please click on your County & use the Contact Us page for further details :
For more information About Us, The Programme & Registering a Learner :

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