Projects in Suffolk and Norfolk which will support more than 650 people furthest from the labour market to find a job or become work ready have received £200,000 in funding from the New Anglia LEP.
Ten projects successfully pitched for up to £20,000 each from the LEP’s Community Challenge Fund. The project, now in its fourth year, is delivered in partnership with Norfolk and Suffolk Community Foundations.
Over three previous funding rounds, the Community Challenge Fund has awarded £605,000 for projects pledging to help 279 people into paid employment and a further 724 become work ready, working with more than 30 organisations from the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) to support back-to-work projects with diverse themes including construction, catering, sport, farming, music and media production.
Now, eleven new projects have been awarded funding to work with people to overcome physical, mental, behavioural and social obstacles to gain the confidence and skills to enter the job market. They aim to help 90 people into permanent employment and a further 560 to become work ready. The projects are:
- Ipswich Disabled Advice Bureau: Ipswich
- DIAL: Lowestoft & Waveney
- Green Light Trust: West Suffolk
- Papworth Trust: Ipswich
- Suffolk Refugee Support: Ipswich
- The Benjamin Foundation: North Norfolk
- East Anglia Anchorage Trust: Great Yarmouth
- Kickstart Norfolk: Breckland
- The Prince’s Trust: Norwich
- Voluntary Norfolk: Norwich, King’s Lynn, Great Yarmouth
- Home Group: Wensum, Norfolk Coast
Doug Field, chair of New Anglia LEP said: “This, the fourth year of the Community Challenge Fund, follows a new funding pledge from the LEP board. I’m delighted to see the quality of this year’s projects repaying the board’s faith. Inclusive Growth is a key theme of the Norfolk and Suffolk Economic Strategy. The work of these projects is vital in achieving our aims, and to the hundreds of people they’re helping get into work or to become work ready.”
Stephen Singleton, CEO of Suffolk Community Foundation, said: ‘‘As we continue to work in partnership with the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership to ensure their funding reaches grassroots level organisations in Suffolk, we are very pleased to be able to award money to five very high quality applications that are well spread and across the County and well-focussed to have a positive impact on the needs we have here.’’
Clare Cullens, CEO of Norfolk Community Foundation, said: ‘‘Building skills and delivering opportunities for people facing disadvantage, is one of our key priorities at Norfolk Community Foundation. We are delighted to support this programme again and continue to develop new and innovative models of addressing this within the voluntary sector.”
