Rebuild Project secures vital funding

Reporter: Katie Hill
Date online: 12 September 2007

The Rebuild project has been given the go-ahead to carry on its good work with a full one year grant from the Learning amp; Skills Council (LSC).

Last year the project was given funding for an initial pilot scheme, which was very successful and managed to turn around the lives of several young people.

The Rebuild project, which is part of the Christian charity "Jericho Community Projects,’ helps young men and women who have been unemployed for a long time and have no skills or qualifications to gain vocational skills in construction industry skills such as plastering, brick-laying and tiling. The people helped by Rebuild are often those who face significant barriers in life such as drug and alcohol addiction.

Suzanne Ogden from the LSC commented: "I think they have received the grant because they have an excellent track record when it comes to this kind of work, and the government is recognising that more resources need to be pumped into projects like this.

"The project succeeds by doing lots of one to one counselling and working in small groups. It involves quite an intensive course, which has led to significant success; and it is for this reason that the LSC is particularly supportive of it."

Ian Wight from the Rebuild project commented: "We are all very happy about the funding; the LSC has given us all we have asked for and has gone out of its way to support us, which we very much appreciate. Now that we have this funding we can expand the project and plan to double the number of training groups to at least four.

"We are also now utilising Meadway Community Centre as a second building from which to work, with the permission of the Meadway tenants association. The funding will allow us to help more young people to get a fresh start in life, and turn them into employable citizens."