SIC Turns Two!
It’s been two years since I registered Sick In The City CIC!
I vividly remember buying the original domain name at 2 am in the morning and thinking ‘I’ll do something with that’, filling out all the paperwork from my bed as the pandemic lockdown continued around us. The shift from working in an office to working from home had given me hope that an even bigger shift was about to happen for disabled and neurodiverse people across the globe!
We are yet to see any real tangible change for disabled people, even with more companies offering remote working. The idea is great, but in reality, not many managers know how to manage an entirely remote team effectively, let alone disabled and neurodiverse people. But if the past two years working on SIC has taught me anything, there are companies out there who recognise this and know they need to adapt in order to innovate.
SIC comes from ‘Sick In (the) City’, though it's been fun to hear other people's take on where our name came from. The work we do is definitely ‘sick’ (slang: cool) and me and my co-founder Alice are also both sick (read: chronically ill). ‘Sic.’ with the full stop after it is also an abbreviation for something written as said, often incomplete and quoted verbatim. I quite like this theory as a metaphor for disability in general. We may get things done a different way, but at the end of the day, you know what we mean, and it's important that it comes straight from the source without our identity being erased.
2021
In 2021 we launched SIC as a learning experience for disabled and neurodiverse people to access the training, skills and career support in a friendly and approachable way, that I wish I’d had access to when I was just starting out in my career.
We ran successful work experience placements, developed training and launched our blog. The career spotlight interviews came out of this, as seeing yourself in careers you never thought were achievable is so important. All of this content and learning resources can now be found on www.siclearninghub.co.uk as we build even more specific accessible tailored courses and resources!
Annie was one of our first ever trainees, and is still with us today! Now working with us as our Creative Lead, I asked her what a highlight of that first year was:
Seeing how fast both the company and myself as a professional grew in just a year. From being first a Digital Marketing volunteer, to the Virtual Assistant, to now the Creative Lead, it’s safe to say I’ve covered a lot of SIC grounds! I remember attending Unhidden’s fashion show for London Fashion Week towards the end of our first year (we were sponsoring Unhidden and I’d been hired by them temporarily through SIC’s ‘hire-a-trainee’ scheme) and thinking “Wow - look at us go!”
Alice joined SIC right at the start, so asking her to join me as an official co-founder and chief operating officer was definitely a highlight of my 2021. I asked her what a highlight of the first year was for her:
I joined SIC when it was in its infancy. At the time we were just focusing on training and the impact we were making was amazing. So many of our trainees went on to do some incredible things and I am so proud of all of them. Helping those people was a huge highlight.
For me, my highlight was seeing how much SIC was actually needed! The community response to our work and what we offered was amazing. It really proved to me that this was the right path. Not only did I get to work in an area that made a huge impact on my community, but I also got to work in the area of my expertise (building inclusive communities and cultures!).
2022
2022 saw the launch of our business offering, when we knew in order to remain sustainable and able to help as many other people in our community as possible, we needed to make money!
Up until this point, we had been applying for grants and funding to cover these costs, and quickly found out that this was going to be a completely ineffective way for us to sustain and grow the business.
Sadly, there is not a lot of support out there for disabled entrepreneurs, let alone social enterprises (we are non-profit!) that focus on disability employment.
I think it’s important to be transparent about the barriers we faced along the way. We work so hard, and accessing financial support is just as important to the success and longevity of the business as our passion and drive. We’re working on securing even more funding opportunities this year.
2022 was full of so many amazing milestones too! We pivoted a few times along the way, but it’s a strength of the business and our team that this was a seamless and logical transition.
We sponsored the first-ever adaptive fashion show at London Fashion Week. I ended up moving down to the midlands so Alice and I could work together in person for the first time. We joined the Natwest Entrepreneur Accelerator, and have absolutely loved being able to tap into the coaching, mentorship and community this has offered.
A huge highlight for me was winning the Disability Specialist award at the RIDI (Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative) Awards. It was an unexpected win, though obviously a great reminder for us that we’re really doing something right!
Annie’s 2022 highlight:
At the end of last year, we branched out our work to my favourite industry: Theatre. Hosting our first theatre and access focused event in collaboration with Leeds Playhouse was a standout moment for me. We learnt so much from our guest speaker Amy Leach (Deputy Artistic Director at Leeds Playhouse) and the feedback from attendees, both of which helped inform a series of workshops we now offer to theatre companies and organisations wanting to become more accessible.
After a successful event with VAULTs Festival, we’re excited to be working with Camden Fringe later this year on helping their artists feel confident and excited about making theatre that can be enjoyed by everyone.
Alice’s 2022 highlight:
When we launched our Foundations of SIC programmes, everything seemed to fall into place. It feels like something that really represents our values, and it’s work we want to be doing and work that is needed by businesses. These workshops are a product I truly believe in, and I’m excited to see them moving forward.
2023
As we come into 2023, we have reflected on the last year of learning and refined our business offering. Within our consulting a more 1-2-1 and small group focus, learning and development is the heart of our strategy for this year, along with the advisory and project work we love. Our calendar is already filling up fast, so if you’re interested in working with us you can get in touch here.
As we look to the rest of 2023, our focus as a business is to lead by example. We love being able to showcase what best practice looks like for an organisation, and as an all disabled, chronically ill and neurodiverse team, we also love showcasing what our community is capable of when a truly inclusive working environment is developed!
I am most looking forward to our Disability Pride event which we are starting to plan. It’s going to be a culmination of events we have always wanted to run, along with experts from the disability and neurodiverse community coming to share their insights.
Annie’s looking forward to:
The Learning Hub 2.0 launch in Spring! I’m also looking forward to the new contacts and collaborations we will get to make throughout our different projects in the pipeline. We’ve already branched out to so many different industries; it’s really exciting to be able to meet more and more people who are on board with SIC’s mission!
Alice is looking forward to:
Seeing what the future holds. We’ve got so many plans that are already set in motion and I know that this year is going to be a big year for us. Our Learning Hub 2.0 is already looking amazing and I cannot wait to show everyone!
If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up to our newsletter. It’s where all the latest updates are shared before it’s posted on our site and social media platforms, along with extra resources and tips. You can find the newsletter for disabled and neurodiverse people here, and our tailored business leaders newsletter here.