The Valueable Network was highly commended at the Disability Smart Award 2024 for their work to improve the lives of disabled people. The Valueable Network was highly commended in the Disability Smart Global Disability Inclusion category at an awards ceremony in London on 30 April, hosted by Business Disability Forum and held in partnership with Bloomberg.
The Disability Smart Global Disability Inclusion Award recognises organisations that have made a tangible, positive impact to the lives of disabled employees, customers, or service users across a global setting. This might be through the introduction of best practice solutions, a new campaign, service or product, where the benefit has been achieved across a number of different geographic regions.
The judging panel awarded The Valueable Network highly commended status for their work providing vocational training and job inclusion to people with learning disabilities in the hospitality sector throughout Europe.
In their feedback, the judging panel said:
“Leveraging support tools and stakeholder partnerships, The Valueable Network has helped to create work environments where people with learning disabilities can take part in meaningful work and gain valuable experience, either as interns or employees. Their ethos, to reduce the disability employment gap that persists in Europe, is one that we can all support.
“We particularly noted how the project has proved scalable, supporting individuals across 8 countries. It is this innovation of scale we want to recognise by awarding The Valueable Network highly commended status.”
Now in their tenth year, Business Disability Forum’s annual Disability Smart Awards recognise organisations and individuals that are improving the life experiences of disabled employees and consumers by removing barriers to inclusion. The awards are a platform for sharing evidence and learnings from real life projects that have had a positive and tangible impact on disabled peoples’ lives. Awards were given across 10 categories this year.
The Accessibility Discovery Centre at Google won in the Global Disability Inclusion category this year and HSBC was a finalist. We are honoured to have been in this competition alongside such big names!
Diane Lightfoot, CEO of Business Disability Forum, said: “I would like to congratulate all of the organisations who were recognised in the Disability Smart Awards this year. Their efforts and achievements are already significantly improving the life experiences of many disabled people, but I also hope their stories will provide real-life examples of ‘what works’ for all businesses to follow.”
Find out more about Disability Smart Awards 2024 on Business Disability Forum’s Disability Smart Awards 2024 page.
