The Mason Foundation is a national charity working across England and Scotland to remove the barriers between neurodivergent young people and meaningful employment. Around 75 to 80 percent of our team are neurodivergent themselves, which means our work is built on lived experience, not borrowed expertise.
Through Propel, we deliver CPD-accredited neuroinclusion consultancy to employers and run workshops in schools and colleges that build young people’s self-advocacy and workplace confidence, all free of charge. Through Propel Pathway, our online platform, we offer over 57 downloadable resources including adjustment passports and interview guides, available to any young person in the country. Through Community Mile, we bring communities together through inclusive, accessible physical activity. What makes us genuinely different is that we work on both sides of the employment relationship at once, with the young person preparing to enter the workforce and with the employer preparing to receive them.
We have just finished a 16-month partnership with University College London Hospitals NHS Trust and Barnet and Southgate College. The project ended on a real high, with everyone who had been involved developing in some way. our first step in this project was a full day at the college, holding honest conversations with 20 young people about what neurodivergence had meant in their lives. At the end, we asked whether they would disclose to future employers. Only three said yes. it was shocking for us but we also understood why.
That answer shaped everything. We brought Propel into UCLH to show those young people the full breadth of NHS careers, opening with a CEO fireside chat, followed by speed networking with 29 staff across procurement, clinical coding, communications and beyond. Unplanned but pivotal, many of those staff were neurodivergent themselves and spoke honestly about burnout, masking and squiggly careers. Young people who had expected career advice heard instead lives that looked like their own.
The final stage matched each young person with a mentor, chosen on lived experience, career goals and personality. By the end, disclosure willingness had risen from 15 percent to 80 percent. One young person who began ashamed to disclose was offered a summer placement by their mentor, the Head of Procurement, and is now one of the loudest voices for why disclosure is a strength. UCLH has committed to running the programme again, and we couldn’t be more proud of everyone involved, as all students developed in there confidence, and staff of the college found out about how to support neurodivergent students in career choices. Uchl has had an increase of activity in the EDI groups
The Mason Foundation | London, UK
