Charity | Posted on December 4th, 2024 | return to news
Dorset disability champion to receive global award
A Bournemouth-based charity helping people with disabilities start their own business has won a global award.
Just a few weeks after being named a UK disability champion, the founder of a Bournemouth-based charity has learned she is to receive a coveted global award.
It was announced on Tuesday 3 December – the International Day of Persons with Disabilities – that SAMEE (Support and Mentoring Enabling Entrepreneurship) which is committed to helping enable disabled people to start their own businesses had won a Zero Project award.
Zero Project is a global, research-driven initiative with a mission to work for a world with zero barriers. It awards exemplary solutions for their innovation, impact, and scalability. SAMEE was selected from 522 nominations from 90 countries around the world to shortlisted for a Zero Project Award. The charity was one of only five UK entries to make the shortlist.
The Zero Project judging panel, which featured more than 350 disability inclusion experts were involved in the selection process, were impressed by SAMEE’s uniquely tailored Supported Self Employment Internship. The internship supports people with disabilities to develop the skills needed to run their own businesses and combines training in all aspects of running a business alongside work placements and mentoring support for a year.
In November, the charity’s founder, Sam Everard, was named in the Shaw Trust Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 list, which promotes the contributions and successes of 100 disabled individuals each year.
Sam lives with the debilitating condition of myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome. She started the charity eight years ago. She said: “My head is still spinning to be honest! I couldn’t believe that a small charity like ours made the Zero Project shortlist in a year with a record number of nominations. To now be an Awardee is incredible. All this, plus being included in the Disability Power 100 list!
“This month, SAMEE celebrated our eighth birthday – so this is the icing on the cake to be recognised on International Day of Persons with Disabilities with news of this global award.”
She added: “Most satisfying to me is that our project is now recognized as being aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD).”
The charity will receive its award at the Zero Project Conference in March 2025, which will be held at the United Nations Offices in Vienna, Austria, where more than 1,000 participants from 100 countries are expected to attend.
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