Access Enterprise

This project will work with individuals across Merseyside who have experience of mental ill health, including mentally disordered offenders and ex-offenders.

The project will help individuals currently excluded from the labour market to develop entrepreneurship skills or become self-employed. It will offer them the opportunity to explore alternatives to traditional routes to employment, which, for a number of reasons, are not appropriate to the specific target group. Involvement in the project will not be time limited but tailored to individual need.

The project will include a Volunteer Mentor Training programme to engage members of the community to train as Volunteer Mentors to support project clients. The Mentors will receive a full and accredited programme of training and support, and once fully trained, Mentors will contribute to the support offered to clients through the project, by offering practical support to move towards employment and emotional support for health related needs.

The project will also offer a brokerage and support service for employers and employeses for those wishing to access employment rather than becoming self employed.

Through this project we will also specifiaclly target people facing mulriple exclusion such as BME groups, disabled people, sinle parents, victims of domestic violence, people with drug or alcohol dependency. This will be done through cross referral across the programme.