This article is from page 15 of the 2011-10-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
CLARE Supported Employment Service (CSSE) has found work for 242 people affected by illness, injury and disability over the past five years, new figures show.
The highest number of work placements in that five-year period occurred in 2009 (53). Figures for 2011 show that 26 people have found employment through CSSE though that number also includes 19 short-term self-employment contracts.
Team leader Alice O’Carroll explains that the service has developed close links with a wide range of employers and organisations such as Ennis Chamber of Commerce, IBEC, Shannon Development and Network Ireland.
One well-known company that has benefited from their links to CSSE is McDonalds, where, Alice explains, 10 per cent of the workforce in the Ennis and Shannon branches have been employed through the service.
“Our clients are very varied in terms of their experience, education and qualifications,” she adds.
Earlier this year, CSSE launched a five-year strategy (2011-2016) that seeks to make Clare an exemplary area in Ireland for providing employment for people with an illness, injury or disability.
According to Richard Collins, Chairperson CSSE, the strategy has been put in place to enable the service to “weather the economic storm and to put a comprehensive structure on its operations over the next five years”.
In his introduction to the strategy, Mr Collins says, “It demonstrates a deep-rooted commitment to our jobseeking clients and a compulsion to encourage employers throughout the county better understand our raison d’etre.
Over the lifetime of the strategy, CSSE aims “to respond appropriately to the current job market by being innovative in identifying and following through on different pathways to employment” and “support all clients who actively engage with the service; to secure and maintain the highest quality work outcomes possible”.
The service also states that it aims to achieve these goals through a number of initiatives including, “establishing successful placements with larger employers in Shannon, and utilising these examples to generate further placements in the greater Shannon area” while also “empowering clients, who have the capability, to seek out opportunities for themselves”.