Reclaiming Employment

Make Your Journey Work for You

Reclaiming Employment is an interactive online platform for self-employment by people who have experienced mental health-related challenges around work. All our resources are designed to help prospective and current business-owners build practical skills, gain relevant knowledge, and participate in a supportive community.

Reclaiming Employment offers:

  • Flexible, self-paced courses

  • A library of curated self-employment resources

  • Community forum for mutual support 

  • Peer business coaching (REcoach)

Our approach to developing Reclaiming Employment uses real-world wisdom, peer support, and the science of online learning to help users achieve their vision of small business success. Our startup resources are developed by people who’ve run their own businesses while facing major life challenges.

In Fall of 2024, we will begin a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Reclaiming Employment using our REcoach peer business coaching model. Volunteers for the study must at the stage where they are ready to write a business plan, and identify as having mental health challenges around work. Volunteers will be randomly assigned to:

  1. Participate in group and 1-to-1 peer business coaching using the REcoach model

  2. Use the Reclaiming Employment website at their own pace, without business coaching

  3. Receive a list of freely available business start-up resources

All volunteers will complete surveys and receive an incentive for each completed survey.


This project was supported, in part by grant number 90IFDV0016, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201.