Hull City Council has committed to becoming a “trailblazer” authority for a national charter that supports care leavers into employment and training.
The Care Leaver Covenant is a promise made by organisations to provide support for care leavers aged 16 to 25 to help them live independently.
The local authority will be joined by Hull construction firm Ashcourt Group, which has also committed to the covenant.
The company has agreed to fund a program of activities to enable care leavers to meet people in the business, find available jobs in the industry and learn about training or employment.
Ashcourt is already working closely with the council’s Room 42 project, a care leavers’ hub which helps businesses to develop opportunities for young people to learn more about education, training and employment.
One of those young people, Jimmy Green, 22, has been supported by Ashcourt through recent difficult times. Jimmy had to leave his job after becoming homeless, but recently returned to Ashcourt after finding a place to live – and has recently been promoted.
Big shout out to our Jimmy who got a well deserved pay rise today. Goes to show what a bit (or a lot) of hard graft can do. Well done 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 @AshcourtGroup https://t.co/LJ1VpxMbJt
— 💎 GHRoom42 💎 (@GhRoom42) April 28, 2021
Mark Jones, Director of Regeneration at Hull City Council, said: “We are proud to work with Ashcourt Group and the Care Leaver Covenant to help make sure care leavers in Hull are given the best possible chance of finding their way into the world of work. The council takes its responsibility to these young people extremely seriously and works very hard to provide support for these talented and dynamic young people.
“The Care Leaver Covenant does great work to help care leavers across the country. We share its beliefs that wider society must play its part in support at this crucial stage during the transition of care leavers to adulthood.
“I could not be prouder of our young regeneration champions at Room 42, as well as our fantastic staff who work with them.”
The council is working across all its service areas to develop a framework to support young people into employment.
It includes a Care Leaver Working Group, which is a forum of council employees set up to manage apprenticeships, internal work experience, graduate opportunities, learning and development and external work placements.
Ashcourt has agreed to spend up to £2,000 to sponsor a series of engagement events at outdoor adventure park Go Ape to allow young people to get to know the business and to look at jobs available in the industry.
Kurt Bousfield, managing director of Ashcourt Group, said: “Ashcourt recognises the unique challenges that Care Leavers Face when trying to secure employment. We understand that they often just need the right opportunity to experience the world of work and a little understanding that their lives can sometimes become difficult as they try to manage independence.”
