As part of our celebration of Scotland’s national Learning Disability Week 2017, the Project SEARCH team at the University of Aberdeen hosted an employer engagement event in association with the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability (SCLD) in the Sir Duncan Rice Library on Thursday.
The “Looking Back, Thinking Forward” event was attended by representatives from local businesses allowing a critical opportunity for the team to form new industry connections. The keynote address (“Niche Opportunities for Diverse Minds”) was delivered by Dr Justin Williams, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, who is a leading researcher in child and adolescent psychiatry with a particular focus on autism. His presentation outlined how organisations can benefit from employing members of staff with special needs and the importance of supportive workplace practices to ensure the ongoing positive mental health of all employees.
Learning Disability Week encourages people, communities and organisations to reflect on our own histories, share our stories to a national audience and raise awareness of the issues faced by people with learning disabilities to help us work together towards building a brighter future.
The Project SEARCH team would like to extend sincere thanks to friends, supporters and representatives of organisations across the North East of Scotland who joined them in celebrating Learning Disability Week and the successes achieved by our inspirational Project SEARCH Interns.
Find out more at the links below.