More about us
What is Paritas?
Paritas is part of Work & Learning Opportunities, a Brighton based Community Interest Company (c.i.c) which is a form of Social Enterprise that delivers professional employment and learning services throughout Southern England. As a Social Enterprise, Work & Learning Opportunities is committed to using its profits and assets for the public good and to better local and regional communities.
Paritas is a stand-alone branch of the company that specialises in providing a portfolio of individual and group services relating to Equality, Diversity and recruitment for people with sensory, physical disabilities or from disadvantagedgroups.
What does Paritas mean?
Paritas is Latin for equality, parity.
The history of Paritas
Paritas utilises skills and experience dating back to 2005 and the very successful Europe wide Disability Equals Business (DEB) programme helping people with disabilities gain paid employment and promoting equality in the business community. When this programme ended in 2007, key members of the programme created Paritas.
Paritas therefore began in 2007 as a joint project by West Sussex County Council and the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, acting as a recruitment organisation to help people with a history of mental ill-health to gain or regain paid employment. Additionally the project delivered training on health, wellbeing and mental health awareness to over 350 public sector managers, significantly reducing the stigma attached to a condition that will affect at least 1 in every 4 of us in the future. For more detail, please read the project report.
In 2011, Paritas was transferred in its entirety to Work & Learning Opportunities to continue and further develop the services, which have now been extended to include:
- all disabilities
- disadvantaged groups
- an organisational audit tool
- equality training for commercial and public sector employers
The Paritas story continues, join us for your journey.