department of social and family affairs annual report 2006 - Welfare.ie

Appendix to Chapter 5
> Developments under the Special
Projects Fund
The special projects fund allows the Department of
Social and Family Affairs an opportunity to impact
on social inclusion and improve employability in a
very positive way. These projects have given much
help by way of intensive training, counselling and
other supports to groups at risk of developing longterm
welfare dependency.
The special projects initiative demonstrates the
positive results of a partnership approach between
the Department, the Voluntary & Community
Sector and other local players in identifying and
addressing local needs in terms of training and
development.
The groups who need special help of this type
include the very long-term unemployed, travellers,
people with literacy difficulties, lone parents,
the long-term ill and people with disabilities.
Some of the projects supported include personal
development, computer training and ‘start your
own business’ courses.
Planning formed the basis of the course. The aim of
the programme was to encourage the participants
to focus on their long term future rather than the
short term.
By the end of the course all of the participants had
completed a CV. Each participant had a career plan
which laid out the skills they have, areas they might
wish to seek employment and suggested stages of
how they might get there. Many of the participants
chose to return to education as a way of moving
forward in their careers.
* Inroads Programme for Lone
Parents in Ballyfermot, Dublin
This was a personal development, career guidance
and counselling programme focused on young
very vulnerable lone parents. The objective was
to bring the participants to the point where they
could access mainstream education, training
or employment. Fourteen participants were
recruited through contact with front line services
such as Public Health nurses and Home School
Liaison staff. The Ballyfermot Social Intervention
Initiative arranged childcare and provided general
administration for the programme.
Goal 2: people of working age
From January to December 2006, over 160 projects
were funded at a total cost of €2.9 million.
Some examples of projects funded under the
Special Projects Fund in 2006 follow:
* Job Seeking & Communication
Skills Programme for the Young
Unemployed in Cork City
This programme was targeted at 18 year olds on
the Live Register. Most of the participants had
completed the Leaving Certificate but had little
or no direction since leaving school. Some would
have come from a background of long-term
unemployment.
The programme was delivered to 18 participants
over two mornings a week for a period of twelve
weeks and was completed in September 2006.
Social and Job Seeking Skills, Computers and Career
Initially participants had very little self-confidence,
no interest in returning to education and felt
a sense of isolation. Apart from the personal
development and confidence building elements, a
very worthwhile feature of the programme were
the field visits to a number of colleges. By the end
of the ten week programme most participants
had committed to returning to complete their
education.
The programme succeeded in addressing barriers
to participation for this target group in a number of
ways: for example, by providing adequate childcare
and by providing transport from surrounding
estates to the training centre.
A follow-on ten week programme with ten
participants was completed in June. This
programme was designed to dovetail with
mainstream education provision and this was
facilitated by Inchicore College of Further Education
who provided a return to education feeder
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