South East
This LEP area is made up of East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. This area will benefit from £14,973,100 funding from Building Better Opportunities.
Community Connections
The Community Connections Essex project helps people with disabilities or long-term health conditions in the North of the LEP area to move into education, training, job search, and ultimately sustainable employment. Participants will be actively encouraged to engage in community events and take on volunteering roles to help develop their confidence, gain experience and feel connected to their community. By identifying the participant’s strengths and aspirations, the project will support individuals into the training and employment that is right for them. This project is open to anybody aged 15 or over.
Let's Get Working
Let’s Get Working helps disabled people and those with long term health issues in the South of the LEP area to break the cycle of long term and inter-generational dependency on benefits. It is a social prescribing service that supports each participant to improve their employment chances by providing help to take the next steps towards volunteering, working and getting involved in the local community.
Enable East
HeadsUp supports people with mental health issues in the North of the area. The project utilises peer support workers to offer support, advice and mentoring to people with common mental health problems, to help them back into the workplace after a period of unemployment. Peer support workers have overcome their own mental health problems and unemployment, so can offer first-hand experience in preparing for work emotionally, help with practical skills such as writing CVs and filling in applications, and advice on managing the transition into sustaining employment. The project maintains a focus on the benefits work or education can provide to participants, such as improved self-confidence, a sense of purpose, making new friends and learning new skills.
Aspirations for Life (Aspirations)
Aspirations for Life works with people in the South of the LEP area who have primary or secondary mental health issues to help them move into sustainable volunteering, education, training or employment opportunities. It will also raise people’s levels of self-esteem and confidence through a range of sports, arts, community, social and cultural activities.
Through links with small, community-based organisations, the project provides a range of sessions to benefit overall wellbeing and recovery, including cookery, poetry, art and sport.
Essex Rural Skills Project
The Essex Rural Skills Project provides training to people over 45, primarily from rural locations, across North Essex. The project aims to provide employability skills, group life skills and therapy sessions in order to help people gain experience and knowledge to be able to access direct employment, self-employment and further education or volunteering.
Lots More to Offer
The ‘Lots More to Offer’ project helps people who are 45 years and older get jobs in Kent, Medway and East Sussex. The project will provide intensive ongoing support to 150 people of this age, helping to reduce unemployment levels, and stimulate the local economy with social enterprises and micro businesses. As well as a website and ‘app’ specifically targeted at older people, the project offers an employer engagement package for people wanting to recruit older workers.
Essex Carers - The Way to Work
This BBO programme (SELEP) will support Carers across Essex to tackle immediate problems, overcome individual barriers, build confidence and resilience, improve health and wellbeing and secure a new future by embarking on a journey towards and into volunteering, education, training or sustainable employment.
Working Forward: Support for lone parents
The project will support lone parents who are unemployed and will provide intensive and on-going practical support to enable their progress into education, training, volunteering or employment. The project will work closely with housing associations, domestic violence services, substance misuse services and others to build referrals and signpost participants who have a specific need.
This project will run in Essex, Thurrock, Kent and Medway.
https://gingerbread.org.uk/content/2442/BBO-Working-Forward-Kent
https://gingerbread.org.uk/content/2441/BBO-Working-Forward-Essex
Read the project outline - North
Read the project outline - South
Connecting Choices Essex
The project helps those aged 19 and over with a history of moving in and out of the labour market, including those in a cycle of seasonal or temporary jobs, in the North of the LEP area. This may include individuals with a particular barrier such as health problems, learning difficulties, housing difficulties, ex-offenders and people from ethnic minority groups. Connecting Choices Personal Coaches will offer an intensive, holistic service to meet individual needs through minimum fortnightly community-based coaching, support and review sessions, local group/project and online activities, with the aim of helping them to sustain work.
Better Opportunities: Brighter Futures
This project helps people in the South of the LEP area who have difficulty sustaining employment.