South Tyneside charity helping young people find work thanks to funding from Newcastle Building Society

The South Tyneside Churches Key Project, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, runs a variety of projects and activities designed to prevent youth homelessness and support people in hardship right across the borough.

In order to increase its service users’ chances of finding a job, the Key Project has now set up a new employability initiative. It offers practical advice and support to anyone needing help to find, staying in a job, as well as raising their aspirations for what they can achieve.

The scheme which has been granted £3,000 funding from Newcastle Building Society will hopefully help 50 young people into work. It has already helped four of the early participants findnew jobs and apprenticeships.

Jo Benham Brown, Business Development and Communities Manager at the South Tyneside Churches Key Project, said: “Many of our service users have grown up in situations where unemployment was sadly just a fact of life and often don’t have the tools and knowledge to even prepare for finding a job that many of us take for granted.“This new project aims to change their aspirations, equip them with the skills they need to get into the workplace and help them start to build successful, independent lives.“In the present climate, this work is especially important and we can’t let these young people down, so having Newcastle Building Society’s backing for our work is going to make a significant difference to what we and they can achieve.”

Erin Mulligan, people partner at Newcastle Building Society and a South Tyneside resident, adds: “Over the last 12 months, we’ve focused the majority of our grant giving on charities and projects which are linked to employability, as part of helping communities manage, mitigate and recover from the impacts of Covid-19 and delivering sustainable positive change across our region.“The Key Project sets a terrific example of how this can be done in practical terms and it’s great to see results coming from their work so quickly.”

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