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Call To Join The Open Doors Initiative

This article is an invitation to other members of Origin Green to join this initiative. No membership fee applies. If you want to join...
Call To Join The Open Doors Initiative

Dawn Meats is proud of its heritage of being an equal opportunity employer.  We have a diverse employment base with people from over 40 different countries supporting our business.

In the middle of last year through our membership of BITC Ireland, we became aware of an initiative that was being led by Diageo.  The idea behind it was to bring like-minded companies and social partners together to match marginalised job seekers with training and employment opportunities.  

In September 2018, 14 Irish employers came together with a plan to address these issues and support people from three groups in Irish society to gain employment. The Government are fully supportive of the Open Doors Initiative, especially An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar and Minister of State, David Stanton who were both present at the launch event.

The Open Doors Initiative will provide opportunities to some marginalised members of our society:

  • Migrants - refugee, asylum seekers.
  • Young people under 25 with educational and disadvantaged barriers.
  • People with a disability

In Ireland today, these groups face higher barriers to employment than most others.

  • There is a 70% unemployment rate among people with a disability.
  • Since the summer of 2018 many of our refugees and asylum seekers have been given the right to work but have been unable to access training and experience.
  • The unemployment rate among our long-term unemployed under 25s is twice the national average.

Benefits arising from this initiative are two-fold; making the labour market more accessible and increasing the employment opportunities pool. Having a diverse and inclusive workforce assists productivity improvements, staff retention, ideation, positive culture and better decision making.

This article is an invitation to other members of Origin Green to join this initiative. (Existing Origin Green members who are engaged in the Open Doors initiative include Diageo, Sodexo, Aldi &Dawn Meats). No membership fee applies. If you want to join us on this journey please contact Open Doors through www.opendoorsinitiative.ie or reach out to any of the existing members to find out more.