A challenge we cannot shy away from
By Damian Southworth, Group commercial director, Places for People
Congratulations to the 15 finalists, who have made the final stages of the Spark competition. They now have the opportunity to benefit from a share of a £500,000 prize fund, and an Enterprise Insights project which includes mentoring from the private sector.
There are some great finalists including projects aimed at helping homeless people into the catering, and building sectors. Others have hit upon innovative ideas such as a cycling project or a furniture recycling scheme.
What is clear from these schemes is that there is an inextricable link between housing and economic prosperity which I believe acts as barometer to the health of local communities.
Successful places need to be economically viable, offering opportunity and prosperity to the people who live there. Access to home ownership, a wide range of job and training opportunities, and thriving businesses are all vital components of a flourishing and popular community.
By encouraging and supporting entrepreneurial activity in communities, organisations can help create jobs, increase income levels, earning potential and skills. They can provide new services, and help retain wealth within the area.
And our research suggests that there is a real willingness to engage in entrepreneurial activity. We found for example that 25 per cent of our customers – some 40,000 people – would consider setting up their own business.
Yet many people face difficult barriers to accessing self-employment including access to relevant information, homelessness, low confidence, low visibility of mainstream business support services and language barriers.
That is why these 15 projects will have a positive impact and provide positive pathways back into society for homeless and excluded individuals. They will help to end the revolving door policy that has long been a feature of homelessness in the past.
Places for People will be helping those winners realise their ambitions. It has a strong track record and history in delivering economic development initiatives, ranging from employment, training and learning schemes through to projects which promote enterprise and increase business competitiveness.
In the last five years 6,000 people have accessed our worklessness services, 1,277 have been helped back into work, 2,300 into learning, 245 new businesses and supported 840 existing businesses.
Organisations like Places for People rightly focus on the ‘place’ to create sustainable communities which involves offering employment, jobs and training, in the areas where we work, alongside housing, financial inclusion and environmental initiatives.
No-one ever said achieving sustainable communities was going to easy, but the future of organisations lies in getting this approach right. It is a challenge we cannot shy away from.
Congratulations to the 15 finalists, who have made the final stages of the Spark competition. They now have the opportunity to benefit from a share of a £500,000 prize fund, and an Enterprise Insights project which includes mentoring from the private sector.
There are some great finalists including projects aimed at helping homeless people into the catering, and building sectors. Others have hit upon innovative ideas such as a cycling project or a furniture recycling scheme.
What is clear from these schemes is that there is an inextricable link between housing and economic prosperity which I believe acts as barometer to the health of local communities.
Successful places need to be economically viable, offering opportunity and prosperity to the people who live there. Access to home ownership, a wide range of job and training opportunities, and thriving businesses are all vital components of a flourishing and popular community.
By encouraging and supporting entrepreneurial activity in communities, organisations can help create jobs, increase income levels, earning potential and skills. They can provide new services, and help retain wealth within the area.
And our research suggests that there is a real willingness to engage in entrepreneurial activity. We found for example that 25 per cent of our customers – some 40,000 people – would consider setting up their own business.
Yet many people face difficult barriers to accessing self-employment including access to relevant information, homelessness, low confidence, low visibility of mainstream business support services and language barriers.
That is why these 15 projects will have a positive impact and provide positive pathways back into society for homeless and excluded individuals. They will help to end the revolving door policy that has long been a feature of homelessness in the past.
Places for People will be helping those winners realise their ambitions. It has a strong track record and history in delivering economic development initiatives, ranging from employment, training and learning schemes through to projects which promote enterprise and increase business competitiveness.
In the last five years 6,000 people have accessed our worklessness services, 1,277 have been helped back into work, 2,300 into learning, 245 new businesses and supported 840 existing businesses.
Organisations like Places for People rightly focus on the ‘place’ to create sustainable communities which involves offering employment, jobs and training, in the areas where we work, alongside housing, financial inclusion and environmental initiatives.
No-one ever said achieving sustainable communities was going to easy, but the future of organisations lies in getting this approach right. It is a challenge we cannot shy away from.
posted by Trevor at
10:20
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