Step to Work

HOPE is working with its service users to determine how the organization can be as sustainable as possible, and consequently will be working towards the “Step to Work” programme outlined below:

To re-engage people outside mainstream society and to

Secure the future of a much needed community resource – the Social Enterprise projects.

The project will provide training and volunteering opportunities to those, within our community, who have never worked, do not have the required basic skills and have been on long-term welfare benefits. HOPE wish to provide the opportunity to those most isolated and excluded within our community to re-engage which will help vulnerable people reach their full potential, increasing life chances and ensure our clients can contribute to the sustainable economic development of our District. This part of the project will:

• Provide the logistical experience of going to work.

• Identify employment opportunities.

• Provide “employment assessments” and references for new employers.

• Provide a safety net.

Through developing the further sustainability of the organisation, decreasing the reliance on funders, and allowing the project to be self-sufficient, this project will allow HOPE to continue to work in an independent and imaginative way. The project will provide independence through social enterprise of a vital community project. It will bring sustainability to an organisation, through various social enterprise methods, which helps one of the most vulnerable and in-need groups in society, the support of whom will have a significant positive impact on the community as a whole.

The proposed project is for support for a management role to deliver these proposals, HOPE has well established staff who could deliver on the required outcomes, but their work needs to be managed. This post will add value to a range of other services available in the District and will impact on longer term community involvement - less reliance on welfare benefits, improved educational attainment, reduced anti social behaviour and criminal involvement, improved health, more stable and settled lifestyles etc.

The project is proposed to run for a 2-year period from 1st April 2008 until 31st March 2010.

HOPE listen to the people that matter, our community; and want to create a culture of involvement, innovation, making a surplus and re-investing back into the community through additional support for HOPE’s other projects.

HOPE is committed to a continued and improved service provision in order to maintain our significant impact on homelessness within Bassetlaw. With the initial financial support required, HOPE can continue to grow, and achieve sustainability and self-sufficiency, with visible results, which will have a significant positive impact on the clients of HOPE (those taking part in the project and others who are not) and the wider community of Bassetlaw.

HOPE seeks to achieve sustainability through increasing the number of social enterprise projects provided by the organisation, based on recycling goods for community use, and increased access to community resources.These methods of social enterprise suggested include more unusual or experimental projects, to widen the organisational provision, and help to maximise self-sufficiency.

HOPE supports economic independence, by offering additional training opportunities for other training providers for example Reed Employment, Bassetlaw Training Agency and Nottinghamshire County Council Supported Employment. HOPE also provides placements for Community Punishment and Sixth Form colleges; which often leads to paid employment, either with HOPE, or with other local businesses or organisations. HOPE also improves the economic independence of our client group by teaching money-management skills, helping to prioritise debt, and encouraging more settled and sustainable living.