Collaborations & Partners

VICTA 18+ employability programme

In 2023-24, Jigsaw was commissioned to support a national employability pilot by VICTA, a national charity empowering children and young adults with a visual impairment. A group of young people aged between 19 and 29 were selected by VICTA to take part in a week-long residential at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford (RNC).

Jill ran a workshop for the participants at the end of the residential, as well as online motivational workshops to help them complete the course work over 3 months and individual coaching sessions on demand.

Evaluation of the course showed strong outcomes and it will be run again in 2024-25.

VI Wellbeing & Work (Sept 2022 - March 2024)

With funding provided by Liverpool’s Health and Wellbeing Fund, Jigsaw supported people with a visual impairment (VIs) to move towards employment, volunteering or training over an 18 month programme. The aim was to build people’s confidence, help them identify their skills and connect better with local employers.

We offered the following strands, delivered in partnership with Bradbury Fields and other local organisations.

• Regular employment clinics
• Digital skills and other training
• 1:1 coaching
• Employer engagement events

Creatability (Sept 2022 - June 2023)

A collaboration with Collective Encounters to hold workshops for people with a visual impairment (VIs) to explore what creativity means to them. Different methods were tried including drama, movement, story-telling and poetry, and Collective Encounters’ experience helped to break down barriers to participation.

Jigsaw hosted follow-on workshops to share details of other creative opportunities to continue the beneficial impact of the workshops.

Funded by Liverpool CVS Community Impact Fund.

VI Boost to Employment (March - May 2022)

Jigsaw obtained funding through the Liverpool CVS Innovation in Communities Fund, part-funded by the Government’s Community Renewal Fund.

We worked with people with a visual impairment (VIs) in Liverpool to improve their employment opportunities.

Over three months, the VIBE project carried out three strands:

• Interviews of VIs that we had worked with previously, to find out how they’ve fared during the pandemic and to identify any support needs
• Work with 10 new VIs through 1:1 coaching, workshops and training. Benefits included increased confidence, improved digital skills, greater sense of direction in their job search and connections to employers
• Wrote a feasibility study with VI charities and other partners for future work to expand the employment support available for VIs

Navigating Your Future (Feb 2020 - Feb 2021)

Jigsaw partnered with Wirral Society of the Blind and Partially Sighted, Bradbury Fields and Merseyside Sight Loss Council to run the ESF-funded project Navigating Your Future. This continued the work with VIs and applied lessons learnt in Bridge the Gap.

One participant obtained a job and two of the participants started training to become a coach. Three people took part in the Co-Starters course (brought over from the US by Inclusive Economy Liverpool) to help them develop their ideas for starting a new business. It was the first time the 8-week course has been run in the UK and although it was run on Zoom, due to Covid restrictions, the participants found it very useful and engaging.

An external evaluation carried out by Social Impact Consulting demonstrated the social value created by the project as £126,561 over a year – i.e. for every £1 invested, the programme created £6.72 of social value.

This comprised the following:

• Mental health and wellbeing – £30,147 of social value
• Sense of community – £28,044 of social value
• Employment and skills – £68,370 of social value

Download evaluation

Bridge the Gap (April 2019 - March 2020)

The aim of this project was to enhance the employment prospects of 24 visually impaired adults (VIs) in Liverpool City Region. Funded by Visionary’s Development and Innovation Fund and the P.H. Holt Foundation, Jigsaw worked in partnership with Bradbury Fields Services for Blind and Partially Sighted People.

Key aspects of the project included:

• Individual coaching, to identify and address barriers
• Workshops on different topics to share skills and knowledge
• Group meetings to encourage peer-support

An Employer Engagement event was held on 20th February 2020 to showcase the skills and abilities of VIs and highlight the financial and technological support available to employers.

Chaired by Roger Phillips and hosted by Liverpool Football Club, speakers included Paul Cherpeau (CEO of Liverpool & Sefton Chambers of Commerce) and Garth Dallas, Chair of the Liverpool Commonwealth Association with an interest in equality and diversity.

A panel including Saima Ashraf, a VI working as a Senior Auditor a high level in Merseyside Police and Judge Afzal, the first Asian blind judge in the UK spoke about their employment experiences.

The event was successful in challenging some of the myths in employing VIs, developing networks and partnerships to create work opportunities in the region.

Download final report

Progress through Peer Support (Oct 2021 - April 2022)

Participants took part in small group workshops to share their experiences with peers, helping each other to address barriers to work.

Discussing coping strategies with others helped people reduce their feelings of isolation and improve self-belief. They also took an accredited 3-day mentoring course as a group to further develop their skills in empathy, effective listening and other communication skills – important in many jobs.

The project, funded by the European Social Fund, offered participants the chance to:

• Improve confidence and self-esteem
• Develop connections with others in similar situation, to gain support and reduce isolation
• Identify transferable skills and strengths
• Determine type of work and environment that would suit them

Download flyer

Future Focus (Aug 2021 - July 2022)

Funded by the Lottery, Future Focus supported 20 unemployed people by providing coaching sessions and involvement in weekly workshops.

Many people lost their job due to Covid, with few opportunities in their sector, resulting in reduced confidence in their skills or interacting with others.

Also long-term unemployed people, especially with a disability or health condition, faced increased competition for limited jobs, leaving them feeling even further away from employment.

Participants built their confidence, strengthened their resilience and developed more focus in their job search.

Download flyer

Skills Cascade for Employment (June 2020 - May 2021)

This ESF-funded project supported those who have been long-term unemployed and have a health condition or a disability. The approaches used were tailor-made to suit the individual and meet their needs.

There were also opportunities for people who have been supported by Jigsaw in previous projects to gain some work experience doing admin, workshop development or delivery and evaluation. This will help to ‘cascade’ their skills and experience to others, whilst helping them build their confidence.

Referrals came from GP practices, the Whitechapel Centre, the Carers’ Centre and job centres.

Work It Out (March 2020 - Feb 2021)

Aimed at people with a disability or health condition, Work It Out helped them to identify types of job and work environments that would help them flourish.

Through a combination of individual coaching and peer support from workshops, people gained a better idea of their skills and abilities to increase their clarity about their future direction and help to focus their job search.

People were referred to the project from disability employment advisors in local job centres, charities and a GP practice.

Out on the Mersey

OutreachSailing is a social enterprise which provides fun and educational sailing opportunities on the River Mersey. It welcomes people of all ages, who wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to go sailing.

People who’ve been sailing on Jeeona have found the benefits include more confidence and better social interaction, as well as a sense of achievement.

Funding was obtained from the People’s Postcode Trust for Jigsaw to work with OutreachSailing to develop an employability training course on the boat for people with a disability.

We covered some key skills which are important on board a boat and are also transferable to the world of work, and people obtained practical evidence of them using these skills. The course was found to be engaging and interactive, and was run several times between May and September 2019.

Rebuilding Lives (Sept 2022 - May 2024)

Jigsaw worked in partnership with Liverpool’s Equality & Employment Law Centre (EAEL), a charitable community legal practice. They offer free legal advice to people across the UK who have experienced discrimination or unfair treatment at work or other areas of life, which can have a profound effect.

Jigsaw offered coaching to EAEL clients to enable them to rebuild confidence and improve their mental well-being, helping them to move on in their lives.

We also ran online workshops on key themes such as ‘Build Resilience’, ‘Identify Your Skills’, Develop a Plan for Your Future’, allowing people to share experiences with others.

The project also included coaching and workshops to support the team in supporting vulnerable clients.

Resilience Matters (July - December 2020)

Resilience Matters was a Lottery-funded project to support those who were particularly affected by COVID. It offered coaching to 12 individuals, together with workshops. It helped people explore what resilience is, how to develop it and how to recognise existing examples of resilience.

For each group, the final workshop created a podcast based on each group’s discussions on what they have learnt in the project, giving them a resource for future use.