Charity leaders in the West End of Newcastle say continuity of services and support has been vital during lockdown and is part of the recovery plan for Newcastle’s West End residents. This is echoed Nationally with a recent UK Poverty 2020 Report and Findings from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation recommended that the UK recovery from Coronavirus needs to be led by the creation of good jobs. The Foundation said we need to make sure people can access employment support and retraining to improve earnings and access good jobs.

With this in mind, Upstart Enterprise has collaborated with many organisations who deliver jobs, training and wellbeing services in the Benwell, Scotswood and Elswick areas. Their second virtual event of the year, partnering with Play in Newcastle is on Wednesday 31st March and will bring together vital services for local people to access from the comfort of their own home.

Vicki Stone, Director from Upstart Enterprise says – “We have been working in the West End of Newcastle over the last year and in 2020 we noticed that throughout the lockdowns people are struggling to find out about what support there for jobs, skills and business start-up advice. We also know that there are lots of community projects and services which are a lifeline to the West End community like Pendower Good Neighbour Project and SEARCH in Benwell.”

Vicki added, “The idea of this virtual event on 31st March is to bring together as many of the support organisations online in small bite-size chunks so people can tune into the services or employers they are interested in on the live stream. We normally deliver these events in person and we didn’t want lockdown to stop us reaching people who need help the most.”

The virtual event will include exhibitors like Pendower Good Neighbour Project, a charity and centre which supports families and individuals with wellbeing activities like crafting, children’s’ play and provide food donated by a local supermarket every week.  Alongside there will be local charities like Search which provides services for over 50’s groups, one to one support, advice and help with claiming benefits and accessing services and employment. Businesses with jobs and apprenticeships opportunities as well as training and employability for the unemployed will be exhibiting on the day.

Ruth Taylor, Senior Project Worker at Pendower Good Neighbour Project said, “As a neighbourhood project it was important to us that we still had our lights on throughout the Covid-19 pandemic so the community could see that we were still here to support them. We have offered a range of vital services including food parcels, activity packs for children & young people, treats for older residents and some face to face activities for individual families. Sometimes just a friendly face and a chat over the garden gate has been the thing that has made a difference to someone.”

Simon Luddington, Chief Officer at SEARCH added – “At SEARCH we have seen an increased demand for our services, helping older people stay safe at home throughout the Pandemic has been our focus, we provide vital services such as shopping, delivering hot meals and collecting medication, our fun activities like Zoom Yoga and craft packs have helped keep people occupied and connected with their community. Supporting recovery from the pandemic will be vital in the coming months. SEARCH appreciate how important employment is for many people over 50 and we are keen work in partnership to make this happen, whether that is providing advice and information, support with technology or Volunteering experience, we want to play our part in helping the community recover.”

To book a free space at the virtual event people need to register online https://benwelljobsandskills.eventbrite.co.uk