Member Article

Unemployed tenants set to benefit from community partnership

Sunderland AFC’s official charity, Foundation of Light has been chosen as local housing association Livin’s partner to deliver tailored employability support to its communities.

Livin has a longstanding track record of supporting tenants into work and over many years its Livin Futures employability service has helped hundreds of people into jobs, further education or training.

This year, in challenging circumstances, its employability team has helped over 140 tenants into a range of jobs, and supported many others to improve their skills, apply for jobs and prepare for interviews.

Livin aim to broaden its support to tenants with the help of community partner Foundation of Light, who it has previously worked with to deliver successful family programmes in schools, and youth work in local communities. The Foundation is one of the leading providers of employability programmes in the region, delivering employability skills for nearly 800 people and enabling over 400 people to gain qualifications across its many programmes.

The new partnership project, ‘better skills better chances’, will deliver mentoring programmes for Livin tenants affected by redundancy; develop new links with employability partners; deliver practical solution to help overcome barriers into employment and bring new innovation and reskilling opportunities.

Working virtually at the moment and face to face in the future, the Foundation of Light will introduce new training courses to Livin’s local communities including certificates in work skills, digital skills, health and safety, manual handling, dementia care and teaching. Courses can be tailored and changeable depending on the needs of tenants.

Graham Darby, strategic head of housing said “The coronavirus pandemic has had, and continues to have, a significant impact on our tenants and communities. With rising unemployment levels and much economic uncertainty, it is more important than ever to broaden our employability offer to help our tenants into jobs.”

Linda Hughes, head of skills for the Foundation of Light said “We are really excited to once again be partnering with Livin on this exciting programme. County Durham has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, and COVID-19 has only exasperated that problem, especially for young people in the region.

“It is critical that we give this community the opportunity and support they need to re-engage with the labour market, so we can help them have a brighter future.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Eileen Cotterill .