Aspire to Be is a specialist employability and skills service that supports adults with communication needs and specialises in providing help to those who are deaf/hard of hearing and those with neuro-diverse conditions.
The service currently covers the whole of South Yorkshire, working in partnership with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) alongside referring agencies such as local authorities and various housing associations and colleges across the region. There are also plans to work nationally in the future.
Aspire to Be is managed by Doncaster Deaf Trust which has a national reputation for providing support to people with additional communication needs. It benefits from an experienced and dedicated team who offer service users aged 16 and over a bespoke individualised plan that incorporates health and wellbeing alongside employability and aims to enhance skills to provide the tools needed to help people find and stay in employment.
Key successes of the service include:
- Excellent results: we regularly exceed our targets of helping 60% of people we work with into employment.
- Leading the way: delivery methods are flexible and not time bound. It incorporates visual aids, discussion, and hands on learning to suit differing levels of abilities that has greater impact on achievement.
- Expert team: our team has more than 80 years of combined experience supporting adults with specialist needs
- BSL specialists: all of our staff are level 2 BSL users and two of our work coaches are themselves deaf/ hearing impaired
- Matrix accredited: our service has received the Matrix standard which showcases our aptitude for offering helpful specialist employability support. As part of this assessment, 100% of staff and clients said the service was good or excellent.
Funded by:
