NOW is the time to fund employment services for people with disabilities or lose them

Northern Ireland Minister, Steve Baker, visited our Headquarters last Friday and met with participants, their families and members of our team.

For us, it was an important opportunity for our CEO, Maeve Monaghan, to speak directly to the Minister, raising her grave concerns regarding the lack of clarity from Northern Ireland Departments on how they will work with the UK Government to ensure that we can continue to support people with learning difficulties, disabilities and autism into jobs with a future.

Maeve called for immediate action to save jobs and to ensure the future of the NOW Group’s training academies which will deliver 200 jobs per year.

During the visit, the Minister met with NOW Group digital academy participants and their families and heard first-hand about the life-changing impact of our ongoing work which supports people with disabilities to gain qualifications and successfully fill job vacancies in the local economy.

In 2022, the NOW Group supported over 1,700 people and helped to secure paid employment for hundreds of participants. For more information on our work, please visit www.nowgroup.org.