THE ACCESSFUL FOUNDATION

Accessful THE

FOUNDATION

BY ROSALIND TULLOCH

Meet the organisation looking to help you succeed

Launched in January, The Accessful Foundation, has been created to support disabled entrepreneurs. This user-led foundation aims to help disabled people succeed in their entrepreneurial endeavours by providing support and networking opportunities through webinars, mentoring, funding and grants. We caught up with CEO Jack Pridmore to find out more about what the organisation can do for disabled business owners and entrepreneurs.

WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THE FOUNDATION COME FROM?

As an organisation for disabled people, by disabled people - we are acutely aware of the issues facing disabled people around employment, and self-employment. We know that many disabled people miss out on schooling and work experience due to health issues or, more often, inaccessibility of organisations like universities and employers. We want to be part of a solution here. Therefore, we have created a space for networking opportunities, like our webinars and online events. We also knew for the same lack of accessible opportunity reasons, that many may miss out on someone that can act as a professional mentor, so wanted to address this, and lastly we know disabled people are more likely to be in poverty and financial hardship - so offering grants to realise ambitions was an important aim. I, myself, have always been entrepreneurial and have run and founded businesses and have come up against significant barriers due to society’s inaccessibility. We want to be an organisation that exists to make bridges for disabled people in the UK to be able to access selfemployment, business ownership and professional development in a straightforward, person-specific way.

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE FOUNDATION?

The Accessful Foundation exists to promote disabled entrepreneurialism and the creative nature of our community. We want to help create great representation in the business world for disabled people. We also want to be able to impact people personally, by using their own measures of success. We are not here to tell someone what success looks like, we want them to tell us how they view success and work to help them make that reality. If someone wants to create employment that is ‘only’ steady and sustainable, rather than growing and increasing, that is absolutely fine! If it removes barriers for the beneficiary, that is great for us. We don’t need to be a part of creating million-pound businesses, but we do want to be a part of creating businesses of high personal value to the beneficiary, using their own metrics of success.

WHAT FORMS OF SUPPORT WILL YOU BE OFFERING DISABLED ENTREPRENEURS?

Alongside promoting disabled entrepreneurialism, we support people by networking events online (and eventually accessible events offline too), by a one-to-one mentoring programme teaming up a current or aspiring disabled entrepreneur with quality, personable mentors - and by giving grants to help fund projects. That might be a grant for an accredited course, it may be to market a product or create a website, it might be for equipment, like an oven for an at home baker. This, like the rest of the way we work, will be unique to the person.

HOW HAS THE LAUNCH MONTH IN JANUARY BEEN? HAVE YOU HAD A LOT OF INTEREST TO BE ON THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES?

We have been so humbled by the response to our advert for people to join our Board of Trustees! In part, I think this successful call has been supported by the fact our setup is friendly for disabled people. For one, our trustees work remotely. This was agreed before COVID-19, and will continue after. We also have measures in place to take into account that we have disabled staff and volunteers, so sometimes health will come first. We encourage that. Trustees join us in the knowledge that they are, although very committed, able to have a period of up to six months off if needed before we even consider adding another trustee in. They wouldn’t even lose their position in that scenario, we just always keep at least a vacancy on our board to increase the number by one, should it be needed to allow trustees periods to focus entirely on their health. Although by the time this is public we will have filled those positions, we will be advertising again soon enough and are actively seeking volunteers. Again, we do this uniquely, so we will always try to find volunteering opportunities that suit you. If anyone has an interest in getting involved, I encourage them to email us and let’s have a chat!

You can find out more about the organisation at accessfulfoundation.org.uk or you can follow them on Twitter @TheAccessfulFund.