UKSEABLE is a mutual support network for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who have disabilities or long term health conditions which impact on their work.
The creation
of UKSEABLE has been made possible thanks to a Shackleton
Foundation
Leadership Award which has provided the initial funding
required to set
up the network and to provide support to disabled
entrepreneurs for a
period of one year. This award was made to me as an
individual
and I am extremely grateful to the Trustees of the Shackleton
Foundation for this help in making UKSEABLE into a reality.Initially UKSEABLE will operate primarily as an email discussion group, though with individual email and telephone contact between members of the group. The email group, called UKSEDP, will be a useful forum for discussions on many subjects relating to running a small business as a disabled person.
Over time, a specialist group of professional experts will be established. These will be disabled entrepreneurs who offer various business and disability related services to other disabled entrepreneurs. The thinking behind this is that the best support for disabled entrepreneurs can only be provided by other people who are themselves disabled entrepreneurs and who are being paid for their goods or services.
During the initial year of UKSEABLE, ways will be sought to turn the project into a viable and sustainable business in its own right. The objective is not to run a one year project but to initiate an ongoing service to disabled entrepreneurs for the future.
Initially I am responsible for delivery of the UKSEABLE project. However, other individuals with specialist small business and disability related skills are actively being sought to join with me in running UKSEABLE.
Brendan Magill