We are about to apply for funding from The People’s Projects fund to help develop our employability programme. Previous funding from The Big Lottery Fund Awards for All scheme allowed us to run a weekly Job Club at our SPACE2… centre and train 6 young people to be work coaches. We got 65% of our beneficiaries into employment or an apprenticeship as a result of peer-led CV writing support and mock interviews over a 40-week period. We’re now looking to create high-quality training and employment opportunities for the beneficiaries of our Job Club in our newest social enterprise: Urban Mushrooms. If we are successful in our application, we will be using the funding to provide jobs at our Urban Mushroom farm for Newcastle’s young people. This will be a great opportunity for young people to give back to YMCA whilst gaining real work experience.
If our project is shortlisted, it will be open to public vote. Watch our video about the project here.
