Genius Within – Social Justice Practice
Helping neurominorities move into education, training, and sustainable employment.
As a Community Interest Company, Social Justice is at the heart of everything we do. Since 2015 our Social Justice Practice has been supporting individuals to find their strengths through Employability and Criminal Justice programs.
We are experts in helping neurodivergent thinkers and individuals with hidden disabilities into education, training and sustainable employment.
Learn more below about our expert team. Or get in touch with them through this short enquiry form.
Our services and solutions for Social Justice, Employability and Criminal Justice
End-to-End Services
Lighter Touch Model
- Integrated fidelity model. Aimed at those nearer the job market e.g. 3 to 4 months away
- Weekly contact for the first 12 weeks
- Contact from 12 to 52 weeks reduces, and includes In-Work Support once employment is secured
Intense Model
Specialist Services
- Strength-based assessment (Genius Finder) followed by one-to-one Coaching Session
- Weekly contact for first 40 weeks
Contact for weeks 40 to 52 is fortnightly and includes In-Work Support
Digital Tools
Our strengths-led development tool, Genius Finder | Employability, has been specially designed to support individuals in taking more direct control over their journey to sustainable employment. It works for custodial and non-custodial settings by identifying and building confidence in their strengths and competencies across key skills.
Consulting
Our Occupational Psychologist consultancy services are designed to analyse and make recommendations on processes and documentation to improve the client journey. Here’s how we do it:
Phase 1: Scoping Calls Our Psychologists will conduct a series of scoping calls with stakeholders across the organisation. These calls are essential for understanding the current processes and identifying key areas for improvement.
Phase 2: Site Visits Our Psychologists will visit various sites to audit all service user touch points. During these visits, we will analyse how the environment can be improved to enhance the experience of both diagnosed and undiagnosed individuals with neurodivergence.
Phase 3: Full Audit Our Psychology Team will carry out a comprehensive audit of the processes, paperwork, client journey, and documentation. This audit ensures that all materials are accessible for neurominorities. We will conduct a systemic review of the customer journey to identify and address any unconscious bias or accessibility issues.
Phase 4: Recommendations Based on the findings from Phases 1-3, our team will pinpoint where changes need to be made to optimize the environment and interactions with service users. We will provide a detailed written report outlining our recommendations to improve the environment, processes, and touch points for individuals.
Phase 5: Staff Training Our Team of Psychologists will use the insights gained from the audit to collaborate with the organization in designing a bespoke training package. This training will ensure that staff are well-equipped to implement the recommended changes and provide the best possible service to all clients.
By following these phases, we aim to create a more inclusive and efficient client journey, ensuring that all individuals receive the support and understanding they need.
More about how we can support individuals and organisations
As a specialist provider and end-to-end case manager, we seek to identify the psychological barriers that have prevented clients from engaging in education and employment. We then support them to develop strategies to overcome these challenges.
Our team of psychologists and coaches work with clients to understand their strengths and develop person-centred, targeted plans to help them achieve positive outcomes. Support typically includes a blend of one-to-one and group coaching, mentoring and workshops. All designed to build on their strengths, develop confidence and help them in their search for employment.
Get in touch to learn more or discuss your needs
Our Social Justice leadership team
Fiona Barrett
Director, Social Justice Practice
Fiona is the driving force behind our Social Justice practice and heads up the team. She is also the Chief Operations Officer at Genius Within.
Fiona has been working in the Social Justice setting since 1999, training to be a Probation Officer and latterly working as a Senior Probation Officer in Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust. She moved to Genius Within in 2015. As an experienced frontline senior leader, Fiona specialises in the services development and implementation and leading high performing teams in the Employability Sector. Combining her public sector knowledge, she can bring together an in-depth understanding of employability alongside diversity and inclusion. She recognises the barriers that people with disabilities face, and has a working knowledge of how to support individuals and businesses to overcome them.
Kate Omonigho Pearson
Head of Offer Development, Social Justice Practice
Kate has worked at Genius Within for 7 years in various roles including Case Manager and Coach, as well as in Leadership roles working within Social Justice to support neurodivergent individuals to maximise their strengths and overcome their challenges.
Kate holds a Criminology and Criminal Justice Degree and has ILM7 Leadership and Management qualifications.
Jess Sollom
Head of Offer Delivery, Social Justice Practice
Jess holds a BSc (Hons) Psychology and Child Development, MSc Applied Research in Psychology, MSc Organisational Psychology and ILM 7 certificate in Leadership and Management.
Previous work experience includes Case Manager, Coach and Assistant Psychologist all working within the Employability sector, supporting neurodivergent individuals to maximise their strengths, and overcome their challenges.
Additionally, Jess has worked with neurodivergent adolescents within the education system and has held various voluntary roles which relate to inclusion, such as being a D&I governor for a higher education establishment and an Independent Parent Supporter for parents of children with Special Educational Needs.
Drew Goddard
Employability Team Lead, Social Justice Practice
As Employability Team Lead and Assistant Psychologist, Drew has extensive experience working directly with neurodivergent individuals.
He and the team help individuals identify their barriers to work and provide intensive support. The focus of this support is on building their confidence, managing disability and health concerns, and improving overall wellbeing, mental health and sustainable employment.
Some of those with work with in Social Justice, Employability and Criminal Justice
Learn more about related Genius Within services and digital tools
Successful outcomes from our Criminal Justice programmes
of our criminal justice clients, who find employment, do not reoffend
of clients sustain employment for over 2 years
of employability clients progress to actively seeking employment against a target of 30%
These figures reflect those participants Genius Within supported into education, training, or employment.
There was a 3% reoffending rate of participants released from HMP Dartmoor*, who have entered employment in the last 2 years, compared to a national average of 72%.
87% of these people sustained their employment.
*Research from Banfield, T. [2022] Understanding the Long-Term Impact That Imprisonment in Prisons Has on Adults Diagnosed with a Specific Cognitive Neuro Diversity. College of Health, Psychology and Social Care (University of Derby).
What our clients say…
“I was very pleased to have Chris. She was able to identify with me, what my strengths are and create strategies for me to try. She was keen to review these and helped me to come up with any adjustments if required. She had a great understanding of how I may struggle with certain things and had a good awareness of a lot of different resources that I could adopt.”
Anonymous client
Get in touch to speak about Social Justice and Employability and how we may be able to help you
The latest news and resources
Disability
Three Reasons Why Disability Adjustments And Productivity Are The Same Thing
Posted on 02nd Apr 2025
