LOCAL EMPLOYMENT ACTION PARTNERSHIP)
While young people might be eager to work, choosing a career and getting yourself started in it is not always straightforward for 18-24 year olds.
Back in 2014 one of the local community organisations ‘East Wall Youth’ made a presentation to companies operating in the IFSC asking them what role they could play in supporting young adults in becoming job ready. Part of this presentation highlighted recent research which had identified the employability of young people in Dublin’s north inner city as a key issue where the business community could make a significant impact. In fact, many companies were already making a positive contribution and investing resources into helping improve education and employment opportunities within the local community.However, it was felt that a more structured and co-ordinated approach would be more be effective and could target those who would benefit most.
As a result of this initial discussion, a partnership model was proposed which would see East Wall Youth, Members of Business in the Community and Trinity College Dublin come together to pilot an employability study, to support individuals faced with barriers to employment.This led to the exciting new initiative, the Local Employment Action Partnership (L.E.A.P), with the project now up and running.
Setting this all up might seem like an easy task, but to get to this point it has taken 19 months of very intensive work by the partners involved -East Wall Youth, Swan Youth Service as the community partners, Business in the Community and the glue that holds it all together The School of Education Trinity College. This is an ambitious and significant undertaking – it is not just about delivering immediate results (though we are confident it will), but is also about establishing a fresh approach and setting a template and standard for ongoing and similar initiatives. This is a pilot project When all the research and evaluations are examined it is planned to make available (through open access) all of the training modules that have been tried and tested. Funding has been provided for this project by the City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB) and Business in the Community. The trainers and the mentors are all participating on a purely voluntary basis.
Community & youth workers , with the trainers and mentors .