07.04.05
Cornwall Neighbourhoods For Change Builds on Success of Neighbourhood Pathways Innovative Employment Programme

Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change's (CN4C's) Neighbourhood Pathways employment initiative has received investment of a further £1.4 million to continue the programme to help 1500 more people over the next two years.

The Pathways initiative was created by CN4C and Jobcentre Plus. The first programme was launched in 2001 in Penwith. Two years later it was extended to include wards in Kerrier and Carrick, and the latest investment will extend its reach into North Cornwall.

Pam Sekula CN4C's head of employment explained: "Our approach has been proven to work. Over the past four years we've helped nearly 2000 people. Almost half of them went into work and a further 20% started training. It's a voluntary programme and participants go at their own pace. They get one-to-one guidance from skilled employment advisers to create a personal action plan and on-going support as they overcome the barriers which make it hard to re-enter the labour market or join it for the first time.

"We work in the community holding drop-ins and even taking a mobile unit to some remote areas. Community development plays an important role. For many people their first meeting with us has been at a community event. For others the first step on their particular pathway has been to take on some local volunteering."

Clare Beard, Jobcentre Plus manager for Cornwall said: "Effective partnership working is vital in helping us achieve our aim of providing the help and support that jobless people need to help them return to the labour market."

Neighbourhood Pathways has helped its clients in many innovative ways. They've given small grants to buy suitable clothes for work and funding to tide them over between coming off benefits and getting their first wage packet. They even bought someone a bicycle when he was offered a job which required him to start before the first bus arrived.

The new programme will continue this work and will also see the appointment of a specialist adviser from partnership organisation Pentreath Industries to help individuals who have mental health problems find rewarding work.

Over the next few weeks the new extended Pathways programme will be holding a series of launch events in Truro, Redruth and Penzance.

Launch events:

Thursday 14 April – Truro City Football Club

Friday 15 April – Redruth Community Centre

Tuesday 19 April – Penzance Astro Park

Further information:

Pam Sekula, Head of Employment, CN4C: 01209 219246

Objective One has invested ESF resources within the Jobcentre Plus Cornwall District to provide a framework for helping jobless people back to work.

Editor's notes:

Neighbourhood Pathways programmes are delivered by CN4C, run in partnership with Jobcentre Plus , and are financed by Jobcentre Plus and the European Social Fund through the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Objective One Programme.

Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change (CN4C) is a community-based regeneration company working with some of the most deprived communities in Cornwall, focusing on the residents of often long-neglected housing estates on the edges of Cornwall’s towns and villages. As part of the wider CN4C network, Neighbourhood Pathways is able to link into other community-based projects such as community safety initiatives, learning opportunities and specialist play.

Jobcentre Plus is an executive agency of the Department for Work and an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Launched in April 2002, Jobcentre Plus brought together the Employment Service and parts of the Benefits Agency that delivered services to working age people.

Jobcentre Plus contributes to the Government’s aim of tackling poverty, reducing worklessness, promoting growth and opportunity, and modernising Government.

Working with a range of partners, we promote work as the best form of welfare, helping unemployed and economically inactive people of working age move closer to the labour market and compete effectively for work, while providing appropriate help and support for those without work.

Clare Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Mobile: 07973 813647
Telephone: 01872 223439

cmorgan@cornwall.gov.uk

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