Starts: 7th September 2021 12:00 ( BST ) 07:00 (EST) 23:00 (ACT)
Ends:   7th September 2021 13:00 ( BST ) 18:00 (EST) 00:00 (ACT)

Be part of a modern conversation that PurpleSpace is convening about building inner confidence and getting on at work: help create practical tools for hundreds of thousands of employees with disabilities and long term conditions. 

Have you experienced musculoskeletal conditions while juggling your day job? What did you do in terms of telling colleagues aspects of your experience so they could take it into account? How did you stay confident and resilient? What hints and tips would you give to others who experience the same thing?

PurpleSpace is running this focus group as part of the next phase of our ground-breaking work to create helpful tools for people to manage disability and ill health while in work. 

Thousands of people who experience disability, ill health and/or ‘difference’ at work, have told us, over the past five years, that it is often their own lack of personal confidence combined with their lived experience of managing these things ‘alone’ at work, that frequently hampers their careers and thwarts their job prospects.

And yet when employees surface with each other what they have learnt about sharing information about their disability, ill health or ‘difference’, and the simple things they can do to take control of awkward conversations it can often expedite the route to what we call inner confidence.

This inner confidence becomes real when employees: 

• can readily request the adjustments/accommodations that create a level playing field and enhance their productivity
• feel able to ‘break the ice’ with new colleagues or clients or managers in everyday encounters 
• really feel they can be themselves at work and sometimes ask others to do things a bit differently around them
• believe they are valued for who they really are.

This is why we are creating a library of resources which will help frame a conversation or interaction with a colleague when you need them to know some simple things about how musculoskeletal conditions may impact on you and what they can do to enable you to flourish at work.

From July to September 2021 we are running one-hour focus groups for people with direct personal experience of different disabilities and life experience of managing difference so they can surface the things they have learnt about sharing brief information in a relevant way to help them in their work interactions with colleagues.

Facilitated by PurpleSpace, we are bringing together 5-15 people to ask what would it be helpful for my manager / colleague / team to know about:

• the characteristics of my disability / health condition.
• how my musculoskeletal conditions can impact my life and work.
• the things that will enable me to work at my best.
• the practical considerations of my musculoskeletal conditions.

If you're unable to join the focus group but would still like to contribute to these resources,  we’d love to capture your views and experiences via complete this short survey. 

Sign up here to attend the focus group. 

The flyer below can be downloaded and circulated within your organisation and network for those who might be interested in partaking in the several focus groups or surveys across the summer.

Please email us at help@purplespace.org if there are any accessibility needs that you have to attend.