Hidden Talent
A group of long-term unemployed young people volunteered their time to raise awareness of the barriers to employment faced by young people due to hidden disabilities.
A group of long-term unemployed young people from Leicestershire volunteered almost 10,000 hours of their time to raise public and corporate awareness of the barriers to employment faced by young people due to hidden disabilities.
The young people, many of whom had never met each other before, came together on Talent Match, a young people-led Big Lottery and Prince's Trust project that supports long-term unemployed young people into work, education or training.
Peter, one of the young people in the group said:
One of the key issues the group wanted to tackle was the understanding of the needs of young people with hidden conditions like mental health problems, school exclusion, homelessness and offending.
The group then ran a series of events supported by the Chamber of Commerce, Leicester Business Festival, Leicester City FC and the Leicester Tigers, to highlight hidden conditions and the limited work opportunities for young people with additional support needs.
"Through what we've achieved, we've grown personally and professionally. Two of us have become members of the County Council's equalities challenge group, and many of us have secured work which had been almost impossible before we started. More importantly, we hope to have laid the foundations for an easier transition to work for disabled job seekers of the future."