Oakleaf Enterprise has provided vocational training and wider support to people with mental health needs since 1995 when an occupational therapy unit at the old local Victorian asylum, Brookwood Hospital, closed and relocated to Guildford. The charity was registered in 1997.
Oakleaf benefits local people in Guildford and neighbouring boroughs who suffer mental ill-health. The charity has supported hundreds of people back into work. Just as significantly, it has helped keep many hundreds more sufficiently well enough to stay out of hospital.
Oakleaf delivers vocational training (in upholstery, horticulture and IT) and a comprehensive programme of social inclusion activities (such as art yoga, singing, football, counselling and many others).
Nationally, people with mental ill-health have the lowest employment rate of any disabled group, only 24% securing long-term work. Fewer than four in ten employers will consider recruiting someone with a history of mental health problems, compared to more than six in ten for someone with a physical disability. A person off work for six months has only a 50% chance of ever working again.
The Pixel Fund has generously supported Oakleaf’s “Get Connected” project which will deliver vocational training in key IT packages to clients, with a view to supporting them back into employment. Obtaining competence and confidence in IT skills is a central element to securing employment: 77% of the UK workforce use IT in their jobs, but 1 in 10 businesses say there are gaps in the IT skills they need. 92% of jobs advertised require IT user skills.
On behalf of Oakleaf Enterprise