Unemployed people in inner-city Birmingham whose goal is to get
a new job are receiving vital support from a £6million
employment initiative being unveiled at a one of the city's top
football clubs.
The Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) will receive its official
Ladywood constituency launch in front of an invited audience of 150
stakeholders including community and charity representatives,
business leaders, politicians and senior council
officers.
The Ladywood constituency, which includes the four wards of
Ladywood, Aston, Nechells and Soho, has the highest unemployment
rate in the UK.
With a total package of support amounting to £115 million,
WNF already operates in other areas of the city and is successfully
helping long-term unemployed residents to get back into work. Many
of the team of outreach workers recruited to deliver the jobs
project were until recently unemployed themselves.
The initiative is a partnership between Birmingham City Council,
Be Birmingham, Jobcentre Plus, and the Skills Funding Agency. It is
being delivered by Edgbaston-based employment specialists Pertemps
People Development Group (PPDG) alongside Birmingham Disability
Consortium and other partners.
Birmingham City Football Club will host the launch event at The
Legends Lounge, St Andrew's Stadium, Cattell Road, Birmingham, from
9.30am to 2pm on Tuesday, May 11.
The event will focus on outlining how the innovative and
flexible services are helping jobless people in Ladywood find
employment. Keynote speakers include the council's assistant
director of employment Shilpi Akbar, Councillor Tahir Ali, chair of
the commissioning group for Ladywood, Neil De-Costa, acting
constituency senior manager, and PPDG managing director Steve
King.
One of the key features of the project is the strong outreach
element which sees employment-based services taken into the heart
of communities. Jobseekers can visit one of the city's many PPDG
centres or access support across the area from a range of local
community venues including schools, children's centres, leisure
centres, libraries and community centres.
PPDG chief executive Colin Birchall said: "The Working
Neighbourhoods Fund is an extremely important employment initiative
for Birmingham as it directs resources to precisely where they are
needed most. Community engagement is the key to its success. By
transforming the lives of local people through employment
opportunities we can in turn improve the prospects for areas of
regeneration such as Ladywood."
Cllr Neville Summerfield, cabinet member for regeneration at
Birmingham City Council, said: "We are keen and committed to
tackling the problems presented to our city by worklessness.
Ladywood is one of the areas that needs most support, and the
package that has been put together through the Working
Neighbourhoods Fund will give a real boost to people's long-term
chances in the constituency."
Support available for job seekers includes: confidence-building
and motivation courses, CV preparation and interview techniques,
training and opportunities to gain new qualifications. This will be
provided in a range of ways including targeting specific groups
with particular needs. Anyone interested in finding out more about
WNF should contact the team on 0121 454 7231.
Birmingham-based employment specialists Pertemps People
Development Group is one of the UK's leading providers of
Government-funded Welfare to Work initiatives, holding a portfolio
of employment related contracts benefiting job seekers across the
Midlands.