Page 11 - NMEA Annual Report 2019-2020

Section 4
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
2019-20 WIN - Work In Newry
One of our business champions, James Adair, The Journeyman Saddler, a business based at WIN, sharing his wisdom at the Work4UPlus2 Alternative Career Fair, October 2019
4. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
4.1 Big Lottery-funded WORK4UPLUS2 Programme
In 2019/2020 NMEA continued to deliver its transformative individualised support package for young people in the Newry Mourne and Down and Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon Council areas who had endured adversity from early childhood. In 2018 the Enterprise Agency secured £500k from the UK Big Lottery “Reaching Out and Empowering Young People” Fund to continue this Work4Uplus2 programme until 2023. This was the second allocation of funding by the Big Lottery to the Enterprise Agency for this important work bringing its total financial commitment to the Agency over 10 years to £1m, a measure of the value it places on the work of the team at WIN.
The core aims of the Programme are to help improve young people’s confidence and self-esteem, to develop their life skills and to help them to be “work ready”. The Enterprise Agency is assisted in this effort by two “primary delivery partners”, the Education Authority and Future Proof (previously REACT).
The Work4UPlus2 Programme continues to be managed by Pauline Coghlan supported by Ciara McKenna.
During the year we recruited a team of young peer “champions” who had previously participated in the programme to help us in our work. This year they included: “James” who suffered from and was hospitalised as a result of an addiction who delivered several group sessions talking about his experience and “Declan” who faced adversity as a teenager and now coaches in Mixed Martial Arts.
In 2019/2020 we recruited 49 young people to participate in the programme (with a target of 150 over 5 years) some of whose challenges included: anti-social behaviour/offending, living in
a care environment, adolescent mental health issues, a chaotic home environment and having poor social and/or essential skills.
Together they participated in 406 one-to-one support meetings to develop mind maps, set goals, draw up CV’s and personal statements and secure work placements. They attended 269
2 hour group training sessions covering a wide range of topics. Practical hands on training was delivered in the Retail Training Unit at WIN. This included communication and customer service skills and how to use an EPOS system (cash register) and a
card payment terminal. 41 young people completed a furniture upholstery course and 34 completed a silver service training programme which incorporated the hosting of 3 inter-generational four course meals for groups of older people from within the local community.
In October 2019, we hosted an Alternative Careers Event in the Canal Court Hotel at which 40 organisations including employers, training providers and advisors made themselves available for
a full day to give advice to hundreds of local young people who were trying to map their future in uncertain times.
During the year two guest expert speakers met with the
“Reference Group” which guides our delivery team. They were:
• Professor Siobhan O’Neill (Professor of Mental Health
Sciences at the University of Ulster) who discussed: mental health, trauma and suicidal behaviour in young people and students. This session was prompted by the high level of concern about suicide among our group of students a number of whom were grieving for people they knew who had taken their own lives.
• Dr Jonny Byrne (Senior Lecturer at University of Ulster) who discussed: young people’s pathways into political violence, which is very relevant to some of the young men we work with.
Representatives from 14 organisations concerned about the welfare of young people attended these meetings.
The Work4UPlus2 Programme’s impact is measured as a mix of so called hard and soft “outcomes”. For those who completed the programme to date, the hard outcomes included:
• 58 obtained an Emergency First Aid Certificates
• 30 achieved a Level 2 in Food Hygiene
• 27 achieved a Level 1 in ICT
• 53 obtained certificates for the ‘Hour Of Code’, an introduction
to computer science
• 25 achieved Blue or Bronze Award certificates in Velotech
Cycle Maintenance
• 9 achieved certificates for a B-Positive Mental Health
awareness course
• 25 achieved a Retail Training Certificate
• 34 obtained a Silver Service Training Certificate
Softer outcomes’ are considered harder to measure, but using
the “Rickter Scale” technique to uncover how the young people
on the Programme felt and how their attitudes had changed as a result of their participation in the programme we found that a high proportion of students reported that their overall confidence had increased, that they were less easily influenced by others, their drug and alcohol consumption had reduced and they were less stressed. They said that they were better able to deal with difference and
see others points of view and that this had resulted in improved relationships, health and wellbeing and a more positive outlook regarding employment training or education options.
Businesses who supported our Work4Uplus2 Programme during 2019/2020
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