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APM becomes first Australian member of The Valuable 500 – a global campaign to unlock the value of disabled people across the world.
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APM is amongst the first ten Valuable 500 members committing to tabling disability inclusion on their board agenda, along with Virgin Media, BraunAbility, Cinepolis, Unilever, Barclays, Accenture, Microsoft, Fujitsu and Danske Bank.
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Announcement comes as #valuable Founder Caroline Casey takes to the stage of Omniwomen on International Women’s Day.
APM, Australia’s leading provider of disability employment services, is strengthening its commitment to disability inclusion in business by announcing its membership of The Valuable 500.
APM is one of the first ten global companies which is committing to place disability inclusion on their board agendas as part of The Valuable 500 – a global campaign to raise awareness of the value of the over 1 billion disabled people across the world.
The campaign recognises that when businesses take the lead and take action, society will follow leading to real change being made.
The Valuable 500 launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Summit in Davos in January and is calling on global business leaders to become accountable for disability inclusion in their businesses.
Group CEO Michael Anghie said APM was proud to become the first Australian business to sign up to The Valuable 500 Campaign.
Established in 1994, APM is a leading global mission-driven human services organisation with one simple purpose, to enable better lives. Through multiple businesses and services in 10 countries, APM supports more than 350,000 people each year to make positive changes and improve their lives.
APM joins global brands Virgin Media, BraunAbility, Cinepolis, Unilever, Barclays, Accenture, Microsoft, Fujitsu, and Danske Bank as the first ten global businesses to sign up to the disability inclusion campaign.
These companies and leaders are taking a number of steps to support disability inclusion and equality throughout their businesses – reflecting a groundswell of corporate appetite to drive action on disability inclusion in business.
The campaign seeks to tackle the trend for businesses to claim they are diverse, but exclude disability from their definition of diversity.
The need for the Valuable 500 campaign comes as research by EY commissioned by #valuable has found disability is still woefully absent from the majority of board level discussions globally – with the majority (56%) of global senior executives rarely or never discussing disability on their leadership agendas.
Further research from Edelman’s 2019 Trust Barometer found that 62% of employees are looking to their CEO for leadership during challenging times.
Omniwomen UK Leadership Summit.
Today’s announcement also comes as Caroline Casey speaks at The Omniwomen UK Leadership Summit, which will bring together 300 Omniwomen delegates to celebrate International Women’s Day and advocate for inclusion in every form.
Omniwomen is a day of workshops organised by global media, marketing and corporate communications company Omnicom. This year’s theme is ‘Supporting Diverse Paths to Leadership’ to celebrate and enable women from all backgrounds to fulfil their potential.
#valuable is a catalyst for an inclusion revolution that exists to position disability equally on the global business leadership agenda. It is spearheaded by award-winning activist, social entrepreneur and Binc founder Caroline Casey, who is registered blind.
In 2017, Caroline launched #valuable at One Young World, the global summit for young leaders, providing a platform to activate a new generation of future leaders who care passionately about disability inclusion and aren’t afraid to be vocal about it.
Caroline set off on a boundary-pushing, month-long 1,000-kilometre horse adventure through Colombia to the opening ceremony of One Young World to engage next generation leaders with the power to make change.
Caroline took to the One Young World stage once more in 2018, speaking about the Inclusion Revolution.
To apply to be a Valuable 500 business, please use the contact form below.
Media contacts.
Eloise Keightley, Seven Hills.
- Email: [email protected]
Richard Poston, Director of Communications, the Valuable 500.
- Email: [email protected]
Notes to Editors.
Applying for Membership of The Valuable 500.
To apply to be a Valuable 500 business, please use the contact form below. Membership of The Valuable 500 includes:
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Unlimited access to our executive disability performance resource hub.
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Membership to a community of like-minded business peer leaders, committed to raising their game on disability.
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The platform and opportunity to raise your profile as an early adopter helping to shape this vital emerging economic and societal agenda.
By becoming a member of The Valuable 500, you agree to:
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COMMIT: Table disability on your board agenda from 2019.
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ACT: Make ONE firm commitment to action in 2019.
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AMPLIFY: Share your commitment to The Valuable 500 internally and externally.
About #valuable.
Launched by Binc, #valuable is a campaign working to ensure businesses globally recognise the value of the one billion people around the world living with a disability. We believe that building a global society that recognises the value of the 1 billion people living with a disability starts with business. We’re on a mission to make sure businesses across the world recognise the value of the one billion people living with a disability.
Binc was founded by social entrepreneur and activist Caroline Casey in 2015, with a mission to ignite a historic global movement for a new age of business inclusion. Binc is capitalising on Caroline Casey’s 18-year track record of success engaging over 450 organisations and working with 500,000 business leaders. Binc fundamentally believes that inclusive business creates inclusive societies and is initiating a new approach to business that genuinely includes the 1 billion people living in the world with a disability. Binc is the founding team behind valuable, an ambitious global campaign to put inclusivity on top of the business agenda around the world in 2019. Binc is using a tried and tested formula that has worked in the past for gender, race and LGBT to leverage the exponential rise of The Diversity and Inclusion Agenda.
Definition of disability:
#valuable uses the definition provided by the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with disabilities, which defines a person living with a disability as ‘those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.’
Disability and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The need to advance disability inclusion around the globe is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Disability or ‘persons with disabilities’ are specifically referenced 11 times in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a further six references to ‘persons in vulnerable situations’. Principally with reference to: promoting inclusive economic growth that allows disabled people to fully access the job market and guaranteeing equal and accessible education through the creation of inclusive environments.