Agenda item

Presentation by Cherry Underwood, Trust Executive, The Renewal Trust

Cherry Underwood, Trust Executive and Michelle Campbell, Young People’s Performance and Tracking Officer from the Renewal Trust, delivered a presentation to the Committee and highlighted the following information:

(a)  £490,228 of funding was allocated via the area based grant in 2014-15 which includes £40,000 per annum towards community associations, £140,000 pa for Employment and Skills, £21,428pa for Digital Inclusion and £22,000pa Renewal Trust management fee;

(b)  the Renewal Trust continues to support community associations across the area and has carried out visits to three community associations in the area to support with monitoring, recording and evidencing work. Representatives of the Renewal Trust carried out visits to Northamptonshire along with colleagues from Nottingham City Council and Groundwork Greater Nottingham in order to review a possible asset transfer model for the future;

(c)  a variety of partners contribute to promoting employment and skills within the area, such Stonebridge City Farm, Nottingham YMCA, City College Nottingham, the Renewal Trust Employment Outreach Service and the Renewal Trust Sports Employment and Development Project. Employment and Skills partners focus on delivering activities to help unemployed people into work, work experience placements and volunteering projects;

(d)  annual targets are set for the Employment and Skills partnership providers, and monitoring information is submitted on a monthly basis detailing performance against a variety of outputs, such as the number of Work Clubs per week, the number of people who access work experience placements, evidence of engagement in neighbourhood activities and the number of people referred to the Council’s Employer Hub. In Quarter 1 the Area Based Grant’s Employment and Skills funding helped get 42 people into work, against an actual target of 57. Employment and Skills funding provided above target assistance in work experience sessions, volunteering and half day work club sessions;

(e)  in 2014/15, £16,000 funding was allocated as part of the Area Based Grant Domestic Violence Project Funding. Initiatives for 2014/15 include providing training for local project staff, working with young people through youth provision and local schools, developing local schools and Community Champions and ensuring sustained communications campaign across the ward;

(f)  in 2014/15, £224,000 was allocated to the Young People Service Funding stream with organisations such as Community Recording Studio delivering 1-2-1 and group targeted support. A range of organisations benefiting from Young People Service funding will continue to provide information, advice and guidance to encourage employability, literacy and coaching skills. The number of young people aged 10-17 years old attending Holiday Activity Provision from 25 July 2014 to 29 August 2014 was 1643 which represents 86% of targeted attendance;

(g)  £20,200 of Communities of Identity Funding has been distributed across the city in 2014/15 with Stonebridge City Farm acting as a partner. The funding provides activities to support improved self confidence, health improvement activities and encouraged participation in training;

(h)  in 2014/15, £21,428 was allocated as Digital Inclusion funding with planned activities including the employment of a part-time IT tutor, the provision of IT equipment at The Chase in St Ann’s and a further provision to added to a neighbourhood centre in Sneinton, once identified. The current priorities for the Renewal Trust is to further develop Area Based Grant Communications, formalise the Area Based Grant Steering Group, and to identify further ways to measuring the impact of the funding on the city and its residents.

Following questions and comments from the Committee, the following information was provided:

(i)  a breakdown of the costs associated with the GREAT programme can be provided and delivered in schools, although not many schools have taken up the scheme and only one has paid for the scheme in the past. With all funding that is distributed across the city, the challenge is to educate providers in terms of what is considered as a reasonable cost.

RESOLVED to note the presentation and thank the Renewal Trust for the informative update.