We have had COVID funding from: 

General Information

 This video shows are current Virtual IWR services!

We are a not-for-profit CIC Limited Company, first created June 2019 by Karen Yates focused on promoting, independence and work ready and life skills, irrespective of disability, learning disability or SEND needs or confidence issues or other factors individuals want help with. We are lived disability led but open to all who feel we could help them or that feel they can also help others. We are a workplace AND a Community and can meet with you to explain options and support. Our background is education, community disability support and business.  You do not need art or natural creativity skills just a want to get involved and develop your life, work and independence and business enterprise skills. We work with ALL ability levels. We offer a supportive work place and work experience and work with individuals, young people and adults (All ages and abilities), schools (SEN (all levels), Mainstream, PRU's  colleges, community organisations and more.  We give the opportunity to explore hobbies/interests. We also offer placements to those on level 1 Traineeships that want to showcase skills and develop employability/enterprise while helping others understand important adult life topics.

We offer a Social Retail Tech hub, creative and digital as well as social support sessions. Products for sale online are designed by individuals with SEND/Disabilities/Mental health or other chronic health issue. The work with us involves various adapted work briefs:
Product design, using photographs, art and enterprise workshop sessions.
Product creation workshops like jewellery making. Product design and making could involve using your OWN Original designs so for example you can create clothing, accessories, notebooks, art puzzle cubes, water bottles, travel cups or come with your own product ideas and we will explore if it is possible!

We offer Social support and support with daily life tasks.

We follow Gatsby standards for careers education. We are based in Buckinghamshire England and work with many local organisations BUT due to our virtual services you can work with us through our virtual options online from ANYWHERE! We offer supported recorded Zooms or TEAMS meetings, with two members of staff email and phone contact in real time with real work briefs adapted to ALL levels. 

Retail and customer service experience including product sourcing  and when permitted selling in shops or at events. As well as work trips such as doing photography or trying out hobbies/interests from the website and doing a review for us.   

We want each adult life topic from the website to have a gallery for your posters/ideas/articles and digital skills sessions, this is in addition to our creative hub. Join the IWR community and contribute to the website with your own art, creative writing, or adult life articles. To help make our site a community and more relevant and to to help others understand these topics/learn life skills. Could you help others? OR Do you need help with life/work skills? 

You can test and demonstrate your skills with lots of software such as photo editors, graphic design, music making, gaming, animation, video. This can be added to the IWR website. You could help others by making how to guides. 

We want to develop an online music and gaming hub in the future as well as a session for life skill videos and a accessible entry level jobs board. 

You can get involved in creative writing we want to create a Mythical Creatures illustrated book so if you would like to create a creative description AND OR the illustration for a character please get in touch.

Help with CVs and application forms/interview skills.

Sessions on adult life skills - easy read topics. You can share life strategies via the website. Do life skill videos or role plays. 

iPad apps for education/life/work sessions. Support with English, math, IT, Employability and more. 

Online creative competitions and activities.

Work experience finding as well as work experience with us.

Help with PIP disability benefit forms

If you scroll down the home page you will see picture icons and categories for easy navigation on different adult life topics. These themes lead to different groups of pages of information on each topic. These are: Money Management Benefits and Housing, Education, Health, Interests, Life in General, Workplace, all in relation to disability. Information includes easy read materials for life topics to other materials, helping those going to university and much more connected to disability. If you would like to advertise disability services or jobs on our site, let us know.

Our Directors and Team have a range of experiences, including lived personal disability experiences; experience working in further and higher education; SEND; experience in the community with disabilities in more traditional settings; experience with moderate learning disabilities; experience as a Specialist Mentor for Autism and Mental Health in Higher Education; SEND qualifications and an MSc, as well as business running experience and accountancy experience.Email us at independentandworkready@gmail.com Day to day activities are run by Karen Yates and Natalia (Tally) Cave. 

One of our recent projects has been creating a large number of high quality A5 notebooks with participant designs thanks to funding from NSNU. A small number are on the shop now for sale but all will be viewable and for sale from the shop very soon (By Mid January 2021)! Most are A5 PU Leather but all the styles are all very different! Some participants use their original art, their own  photos or approaches that work for them and the results have been fab!!!!!!!!!

 

Here are just a few of the many notebook examples we will have for sale soon: