JOBS LIFELINE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

A Jobs lifeline is being offered to young people in North East Lincolnshire in a new £104,000 scheme – the project will benefit the East Marsh, and will be funded by the Working Neighbourhood’s Fund.

The pilot project – which will be rolled out to more people if successful – is giving 16 to 25-year-olds a taste of what life is like working for a living – in the hope that it will lead them into full-time employment.

The scheme will initially provide a “life package” for 10 unemployed people, individually tailored and able to include: a paid job for 12 weeks; a place to live; and a social life by developing skills through volunteering.

Called Building Skills 4 Life, it has been set up by six key local organisations, which have pooled funding to provide it.

They hope the 12-week initiative will provide the support – and encouragement – some people need to get into work.

The jobs available include revamping a property on Guildford Street, Grimsby, as a “live training area” for experience in the construction industry, and working in an office at CPO Media, a community publishing organisation.

They will learn life skills, including confidence-building, at YMCA and Foresight.

Danny Buckley, head of regeneration at Shoreline Housing Partnership, who is spearheading Building Skills 4 Life, said: “This is a pilot scheme, so we will be working with up to 10 people to begin with, and assessing what skills they need to develop – which could be as simple as cooking.
“All of them will be from challenging backgrounds, or have various issues they need to work with.”

Shoreline has worked on other schemes that have helped to regenerate areas of concern – including the successful Project Horizon.

Project Horizon was launched back in 2007 and resulted in 26 homes on Chester Walk being refurbished by homeless people or those living in temporary accommodation.

Many of those who took part ended up moving into the refurbished homes. Danny Buckley, said: “Shoreline were hoping to carry on the success of renovation on Chester Walk, which had been done by young people who were living there themselves.”

He said the decision to join forces with other organisations, such as the CPO, followed their time working together on Neighbourhood Renewal Funding – special funding from the Government to pay for community projects.

Mr Buckley said: “People who want to get on board can also give us a ring. We will then draw up a shortlist.”

The project will commence on April 20 and carry on for about 16 weeks.

He said the hope was they could find a way to carry this forward after the trial period.

He added: “We hope to make a difference to the lives of the individuals involved, and the programme will be ready to build on this, should it be considered a success.

“We will make sure those in the pilot scheme will not be dropped at the end of the project, and they will be supported by the organisations involved in any way we can.”