According to A4e's own website, 'the A4e Brighton Pathways Programme supports people in Brighton who have been on Disability Allowance to get back into sustainable employment and works on initiatives to Improve Peoples Lives'.
Despite some controversies surrounding their involvement with the government's New Deal program (you can see some funny takes on this here http://a4ephotogallery.blogspot.com/) , my experiences with A4e have been almost entirely positive. I am currently setting up my own business and the staff have not only been incredibly helpful, but have also directed me towards other organisations which are helping me with my endeavours.
In the past I have been in touch with several other organisations which share the same or similar objectives as A4e, but in terms of friendliness or usefulness of the help received, I rate A4e above any of the others. You can tell that the employees enjoy working here, which for me is very important. I am also a client of another organisation and have found it quite frustrating that two of the employees which I was working with suddenly left the company so that I was assigned to someone else. At A4e I have been spared that kind of disappointment.
Currently I am waiting to be assigned a business mentor by another organisation. I was initially told that it would take 2-3 weeks, but after a month I am still waiting because the Criminal Record Checks for that peson are still being processed (a slow procedure in this country!). Because of the delays I would have wished for some extra support by A4e, but the appointments with them are spaced relatively far apart my only criticism, because it means that I am currently left to my own devices. However they have provided me with so much information for new business starters, that I should now be able to work on most of the issues myself. read more