Research Partners​
Are you Interested in discussing these questions?
Why has Ireland had a legacy of segregated provision for people with disabilities in school, training and within the labour market?
​
A more integrated model could have the potential to raise the bar and create cultures which empower people rather than “homogenise” several groups of citizens within our society.
​
Why has the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for Persons with Disabilities (CES) which was created as a whole-of-government response to the obstacles that people with disabilities face in finding and keeping jobs not been fully implemented?
​
The CES sets out to incrementally improve on current best practices, while also introducing new goals and timetables to be achieved over its existence (2016-2025). We are watching this space and hoping that stated goals will be achieved between now and 2025.
Why are Employability models not reaching those with higher Job skill requirements?
​
Job coaches have many demands because they are tasked with bridging the gap between the goals of a market-driven programs and traditional disability services. However, due to the Supported Employment organization’s structure, these staff are unable to progress opportunities for a wide group of applicants.
​
Why has the parity in the workplace not been achieved and the employability gaps have widened, and progress slowed in recent years despite all of the exposure and goal setting?
​
The CES study has offered data and highlighted areas where disparities in employment continue to exist. They conclude that further research is needed.
What do we need to do?
A comprehensive report collating evidence based data is required from the grassroots prospective in order to highlight the barriers and opportunities for innovative Pathways to Employment for people who are the furthest from employment; This cohort is primarily made up of disability service users who have a long history of unemployment – ref link
After undertaking early scoping exercises and reviewing international research in this sector , it was discovered that only a few European-wide research initiatives have focused on the impact of social enterprises on unemployment. These studies show that European nations with strong national policy frameworks for social enterprise have seen an increase in social enterprise start-ups, which has boosted the Third Sector. These programs have had a favourable influence on the low employment rates among people with disabilities (Wilkinson at al., 2014). Under the Europe 2020 agenda, the European Commission has put social economy and social innovation at the forefront of its concerns.
Action Research questions
CISE has based its research question on the European research context with reference to the specific challenges within the Irish context , briefly outlined above. We invite those partners who are interested to collaborate for the purpose of designing, synthesising, and providing extensive data , based on the lived experience of multiple stakeholders promoting access to Employment.
Our research theme is :
​
What are the optimal supporting vehicles and structures for participant-led social enterprises based on the co-production, asset-based approaches to community development?
​
The aim of our research is to identify the positive indicators of effective pathways to employment through the social enterprise model using the lens of a strengths-based approach which views job seekers as persons with different abilities as opposed to disabilities. The Typology of Social Enterprises is categorised by Wilkinson et al. (2014) into six broad activities. For the purpose of this research, CISE will focus on Category 1 which is social and economic integration of the disadvantaged and excluded such as Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISE). This is highlighted as the most visible form of social enterprises across Europe.
This proposal will also use the lens of ‘asset-based community development model’ (ABCD) as promoted by Cormac Russell and John L Mc Knight. We have chosen this specific lens as it is a new emerging field of study and is being used internationally by social enterprises initiatives to co-produce asset-based initiatives.
​
Several of the initiatives contacted within our scoping exercise for this action research project included elements of the ABCD approach. This approach appears to be inherently natural for community groups without any pre-knowledge of the ABCD framework. Through researching this type of model, we critically examine whether this approach can be validated and become a p supported model for policy makers and inform employability models within a variety of settings where marginalised groups experience long-term unemployment (i.e., Justice System / Ethnic groups/ disability sector/ Early School Leavers).