Future Jobs Fund Helping Young People in Easington
Press Releases / April 16, 2010 / Comment now
Grahame Morris supports Future Jobs Fund in Easington
Durham County Council this week announced it is providing 50 new job opportunities to young people as part of Labour’s £1 billion Future Jobs Fund. Hundreds of young people have already benefited through Phase One of the scheme, with more benefiting now under phase two.
The Future Jobs Fund is providing funding and practical support to encourage business, the public sector and charities to create job opportunities for the young unemployed. The Future Jobs Fund includes Labour’s ‘Backing Young Britain’ campaign to ensure that all young people aged between 18 and 25 have the opportunity of a job, training or work experience after 6 months unemployed.
In Easington the Future Jobs Fund is supporting a further 50 jobs recruited through the East Durham Partnership in conjunction with Durham County Council to ‘clean up the environment’. These teams will carry out a range of tasks including work in the local community to clear away rubbish and any household items that are disposed of through illegal fly-tipping.
Currently thirty young people are gaining employment opportunities with training to learn the skills necessary to recondition old furniture and household appliances at the East Durham Partnership premises at Kilburn Road on the Sea View Industrial Estate. Myself and Horden Labour Councillor Dennis Maddison are proud to be associated with this social enterprise based in Horden as Trustees.
Grahame Morris, Labour PPC for Easington, said “In the recessions of the 80s and 90s hundreds of thousands of unemployed young people were abandoned to the dole queues without support. Under the Tories the communities of Easington lost a generation to unemployment with no help or training provided by government.”
“With the support of a Labour Government, Durham County Council and other partner organisations have been able to fulfil a local need to improve services while at the same time providing employment and training opportunities for young unemployed people from this area.”
“An issue raised on the doorstep and by local residents associations has been the increase in fly tipping including disguarded furniture and household appliances dumped in back streets or in the back yards of empty properties in Horden, and Easington Colliery. I am sure this initiative will also be welcomed by local residents. It is however only a start. Providing the infrastructure for cleaner streets to combat fly tipping requires the active suppport and participation of local residents to restore pride in their neighbourhood. ”
Initially one team has become operational just this week. It is planned that as more young people are recruited and trained, five or six teams will be available with staff able to safely handle collect and remove these unsightly waste goods. The service which can be access through Durham County Council will operate on a rapid response basis. It will have the capacity to act quickly to remove waste and unwanted goods before they become a magnet for other fly tipping or a potential health hazard.
East Durham Partnership is a community social enterprise find out more here.
ENDS
