CAIM Empowers Training Programs

CAIM empowers offers a free grant writing support service to charities, community groups, and young people wanting to apply for Erasmus+ youth-led projects.

  • Provide free additional coaching and project management hours to funded projects we are part of.

  • ⁠Support research relating to social justice and equality.

  • We are committed to fair pay for our facilitation team that is at least 10% above living wage age, and we work hard to work with people less likely to be employed including Neurodivergent people and family carers.

  • We support families who have a child(ren) who experience school placement breakdown. Offering free advocacy support to families and collaboration with schools to support suitable environments for all young people to thrive.

  • Work voluntarily with My Lovely Horse Rescue to design youth programs that support marginalised young people using animal interactions for therapeutic benefit.

  • We have established a Volunteer Youth Advocacy inaction Team (VYAAT) and a Volunteer Youth Participation Panel (VYPP) to support young people aged 13-30 who want to engage in active citizenship via projects and activities that drive positive action.

Neurodiversity Training Programs

Erasmus+ Funded Programs

KA210 Small Scale Partnership We Mean Business:

The EU Youth Goals specifically state the importance of Meaningful Inclusion, and this project was designed, motivated by the achievement of this goal.

All project partners have firsthand experience of the challenges faced by many Neurodivergent young people who are often left at home or in day services that are not age appropriate their needs and own dreams and goals and do not recognise their capacity. This situation creates a significant amount of mental health challenges, loneliness and social isolation.

The motivation of this project is to change that, and to do that across many areas in need of attention, not simply preparing young people who are Neurodivergent to participate in their community but by preparing their community to welcome them as equals and to adjust their community to make sure everyone belongs equally. Achieving Amalgamation not Assimilation which we believe is the pathway to meaning inclusion and belonging. True Equality.

The priority objective in this project is to facilitate increased employment for Neurodivergent youth - including Autism, ADHD and/or General Learning Disability (categorised by IQ/Cognitive and/or Adaptive Functional Behaviour Assessment). Employment that works for them.

The project target group is young people aged 18 – 30, and aims to achieve this priority objective via a focus on moving away from an approach of assimilation and moving towards one of amalgamation, by delivering the following concrete objectives:

1. Providing training within communities to those delivering further education and training, potential employers in the local are and also staff working in Local Enterprise Offices in NW Ireland that support people in setting up their own businesses. This training will ensure that those with the ability to offer support to the target group can do so with well informed understanding of the target group, using SWOT style analysis looking at Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats, designing and delivering practices to support this group of young people in a way that is inclusive, flexible and fosters genuine opportunities for success.

2. Develop a published Irish Best Practice Model to disseminate to key stakeholders and decision makers in the field of Disabilities, using the title 'To Include Me is To Employ Me'.

3. Complete a 2 way exchange visit of 24 people (minimum of 11 Neurodivergent youth) between Ireland and Lithuania for young people involved in services for people with IDs in the North West of Ireland connected to the Cavan Autism Centre, inc' Cavan Autism Parent Support group (CAPS), Rainchild and Midland West Border Autism Support (MWBAS) meeting Young People involved in the Lithuanian Solidarity Coffee Project. Project SOLIDARITY COFFEE / Projektas SOLIDARUMO KAVA | Panevėžio JDCC Panevėžio JDCC and a reverse exchange where 12 people from Lithuania (at least 5 Neurodivergent) to Ireland. Planned dates April 2026

4. Deliver development community programs that young Neurodivergent people will be front and centre of the planning, preparation and implementation, demonstrating their capacity to the community.

5. Production of a mini documentary working with Darn Skippy Productions, following the journey of the young participants in the project, that with be shared with key decision makers with the objective of improving supports, especially funding, to improve life experiences and outcomes for young Neurodivergent people.

In December Shannika Greene CAIM Empowers Ireland Program Manager, along with Volunteer Youth Advocacy in Action Team member, Naoise O'Brien visit PsPc in Panvezys in Lithuania for a scoping visit, to plan out our future trip.