The Story of Leonhard Ley, participant of an Access programme

“Working at a museum is like a dream come true.“

My name is Leonhard Ley, I have Down’s syndrome and I have been working at the Rundfunkmuseum Fürth for ten years now. Most of my school years I spent in a co-operative class at a regular school, where I learnt together with non-disabled children. As the end of my school career came nearer I had to change to a special school, though. Many of my former schoolmates, perhaps even most of them, are now in a sheltered workshop for disabled people. There were people who told me that such a workshop was also the right place for me to be. However, I always knew that this was exactly what I did not want. On the contrary I wanted to get on the general labour market!

That’s why my parents contacted Access when I was still at school. The job coaches there managed to organise an internship for me at the Rundfunkmuseum. They were there when it came to finding suitable tasks for me and they also supported me in getting an employment contract. It wasn’t easy, I can tell you. It took years of facing and battling bureaucratic obstacles before I was finally able to sign the contract in June 2024. I can call myself a regular municipal employee now. Having achieved this makes me immensely proud.

Working in a museum is like a dream for me – ever since I saw the film ‘Night at the Museum’, I couldn’t imagine anything better. There’s a little showmaster in me. I love standing in front of people and explaining things to them. That’s why I enjoy guiding visitors so much.

Access – Inklusion im Arbeitsleben (Access) is a NGO in Erlangen (Germany, Bavaria), originally funded in 1998 on grassroots-level by persons with disabilities, to build bridges for persons with disabilities from school to employment and for other disabled people, who have no chance to find a job in the open labor market. From the beginning on Andrea Seeger, our member in the ASEE-Board, was part of the six-person-team of Access and their work based on the Supported Employment Model with individualized support and a broad network of potential employers, public funders and supporters. Access has constantly grown in size and employers networks, by 2024 comprising more than 1,500 employers. Annually, some 350 job-seekers are supported, by a team of 70 persons (48 Full-time equivalent), of those a quarter with disabilities. Access is wellknown in the Supported Employment Scene. They received a lot of German and international awards, for example the Employment for All Award (2017 given by EUSE in Belfast) and they are nominated for the actual Zero Project Award.One of their customers Leo Ley tell you his story 

For more information contact: Andrea Seeger (CEO) via email a.seeger@access-ifd.de


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *