Title of Project – CashBack Change Cycle
Theme – Journey to Employment
Target Group – Young people disadvantaged by: –
- Living in areas of deprivation; and
- Being unemployed, not in education or training; and
- Being excluded, or at risk of exclusion from school; and
- Being at risk of being involved in antisocial behaviour, offending/re-offending
Age range : 16 to 24 years
Total number of young people the project expects to work with : 256
Summary of Project
The programme is 16 x 3-week intensive full-time course which will combine 1 to 1 community outreach support, group mentoring, advice and skills development within classroom, workshop, online and outdoor environments. Four courses will be delivered in year one with 6 courses being delivered in years 2 and 3.
Weeks 1 and 2 of the programme provides practical hands-on vocational training in bike construction in a workshop environment delivered by The Bike Station, which includes the opportunity to become accredited with the national VeloTech Bronze award. Employability training and skills development will be provided in a classroom environment led by employability trainers. Training modules will be tailored to individual needs to include, for example, food hygiene, fire safety, manual handling and safety training will take place leading to iHASCO certification. Week 3 will provide voluntary work experience in an outdoor environment delivered by a range of partners with participants working on conservation projects.
Summary of Project cont’d
First aid training, cycle and mountain bike training and personal action planning and support in CV completion will be provided. Each young person will receive a self-constructed bike to take home and use for active travel in job searching, accessing services or training, getting to work and leisure.
Following the 3 week course, participants will receive ongoing support from Venture Trust which enables them to put skills learned into practice. Aftercare support will take the form of 1to1 mentoring, advice, pastoral support & encouragement from their designated Venture Trust outreach worker which is guided by the participants’ individual goals and personal action plans. Additional sign-posting and brokered access to a wide range of services, agencies and groups is undertaken according to individual need. Participants will be supported to take up opportunities in training, volunteering, internships, work placements and employment. Venture Trust will offer a number of voluntary work placements/tasters.
Areas where the project will be delivered:
The project will work with young people from areas of multiple deprivation across the following 8 Local Authorities, using Edinburgh and Glasgow as delivery hubs.
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Midlothian, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, East Lothian, West Lothian
Venture Trust will work with the young people identified through their referral network in each Local Authority area ensuring that the profile of young people referred to the programme will meet the criteria required. Targeted communities not specified.