So last week we went up to the Common again to meet with Hilary and Ian at the Hawthorn Centre. We had a list of questions for them.

First of all we talked about the style of the gates. We had come up with the idea of making them different with a feature to mark where they are - for example we would like to put a newt on the gate close to the newt pond.

One of the gates has a maximum height because of access for emergency vehicles - we need to check out what that is.

Hilary and Ian were happy with our ideas and also showed us some gate styles the council had come up with and we are going to combine one of their styles with our own customising.

Our next task is to decide on the individual design for each gate.

In the café garden we would like to create benches that are more interesting such as a frog bench. Because there is a pond next to the café and it would be good to have garden furniture to represent the pond and what’s in it and the surroundings.

The centre said that would be ok but that we’d have to think about health and safety and maintenance issues and also bear in mind that the centre is used by adults and teenagers as well as by very young children.

One of the questions on the questionnaire was asking whether people knew about the Hawthorn Centre and a lot of people said they didn’t.

So another of our ideas is to update the maps on the Common to make it clearer that there is a nature centre and where to find it. We will look at the existing maps and see what needs to be done.

Our meeting with Hilary and Ian went really well and we came away from the centre feeling more positive about everything.

Today we are busy getting everything ready for the presentation tomorrow at Team Sport Indoor Karting in Gosport. Eight other teams will be there with their ideas for improving their community and a team of four judges will choose three winning projects.

Becky (Project Admin) and Wayne (Project Leader)

The visit was organised by the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and A4e, the public service reform business, which is one of Wheatsheaf Trust’s programme partners, and Baroness Hanham was here to see first hand the difference private/voluntary sector partnerships are making in tackling unemployment and youth disengagement.

The Minister met Wheatsheaf staff and people using the job search facilities in the Employment Access Centre, observed training sessions running at the Bernard Street building and heard from clients about their employment needs and their experience of the Trust’s services.

Baroness Hanham said, “Wheatsheaf Trust is an excellent example of how the formation of local partnerships allows enterprise to steer priorities. I am pleased to see how the Trust supports those in the local community who are having difficulties with employment, by giving them the confidence and skills to look for and achieve a stable working future. This is a good example of the Big Society in action.”

Elizabeth Fells, Head of Public Service Reform at the CBI said of Baroness Hanham’s visit, “We’re very pleased to have welcomed Baroness Hanham to Southampton today. The work done by A4e and the Wheatsheaf Trust is an excellent example of how the private and voluntary sector can work together to provide good quality services to the local community, on behalf of the local authority.”

Both staff and clients at Wheatsheaf very much appreciated the opportunity of being able to speak with Baroness Hanham.

Jonathan Cheshire, Wheatsheaf’s Chief Executive, commented, “It was good to have the opportunity to show how the effectiveness of our work is amplified by productive partnerships with companies like A4E and public bodies like Southampton City Council.

“We were able to suggest improvements in the use of government data systems that could also win efficiencies for central government itself.”

You can also view the Communities and Local Government write-up of the visit by linking to their website.

The photo above shows Baroness Hanham talking to Gary Herd, a trainee in Wheatsheaf Trust’s in-house construction skills workshop with Chief Executive, Jonathan Cheshire, and workshop supervisor, Jonathan Smith, looking on.

Baroness Hanham talking to Wheatsheaf’s Chief Executive, Jonathan Cheshire, the Deputy Chief Executive, Jackie Powers, and Employment Training Adviser Andy Molloy

It has all sorts of questions on about why people go up to the Common, how often they go, what they think of the  areas up there, what they like about the common, what they don’t like.

What was really interesting was that most people didn’t know where the Hawthorn Centre was. All their feedback will be really useful.

Eleven people answered our questions - ageing in range from a lady of 87 to a teenager of 17. If you’d like to have a look at our questionnaire click here. I’m afraid you can’t fill it in online but if there is anything particular you’d like to comment on you can use the Contact form on this website or if your’e coming into one of the Wheatsheaf centres you could bring it with you after downloading it and filling it in.

Today I’ve been on my own and interviewed Linda at the Hawthorn Centre for the video we’re making of the project.

Afterwards Kiri, one of the project advisors, and I looked at what we’ve got on the video so far and spent part of the morning deciding what to leave in and what to take out up to this point. The video will form our presentation entry for the competition.

The next step which will happen next week is to meet with Hilary at the Hawthorn Centre and talk about what we want to do to the Common entrances and the seating area at the Hawthorn Centre.

It’s been hard work being on my own this morning, but I have got a lot done and the project is on target.

Becky
Project Admin

Matrix is the national standard for advice and guidance work and as such is the most important external validation of our work. We are re-assessed every three years.

The Assessor praised the ‘consistently high client satisfaction levels’ and commented that ‘offering services holistically contributes to the considerable achievements of the Trust in terms of job and training outcomes’.

Partner agencies that subcontract services to Wheatsheaf told the Assessor that ‘they had taken on board suggestions made by the Trust and now include them as a requirement in contracts with other organisations’.

The report also noted the commitment of staff to continuous improvement of services and vindicated our long-standing belief that the most effective service is one tailored to individual client needs.

Jonathan Cheshire
Chief Executive

Read the full report

It was really disappointing, but Emma and Kiri, the project advisors encouraged us to think of a way forward.

So we decided to go back to the centre and campaign our case for improving Southampton Common. This morning Zak and I went to the Hawthorn Centre with a questionnaire that the youth action group had put together to ask the manager.

She was great and after answering our questions has said that she is happy for us to join in partnership with them and help improve the safety of some of the areas at the centre, such as the decking, and improve the appearance of all the entrances to the common.

There are 13 of them and we want to create organic gates and make each entrance different but all welcoming. One of the jobs we will do is replace the maps at the entrances which are really faded now.

The next step is to meet in our Youth Action group on Monday and I can explain to everyone what happened this morning and we can draw up plans for the entrances and decide what needs to be done at the centre.

I feel much more positive than when we left the centre last week because we know we can improve stuff that really needs it and we’re back on track with our competition entry.

Becky
Project Admin

Education is vital - we are seeing low levels of literacy and numeracy skills on our youth programmes

Our Employment Engagement Coordinator on one of our youth programmes here at Wheatsheaf Trust believes “If you cannot read,  the world is closed to you; for example, if you do not have basic literacy and numeracy skills even understanding and completing a job application form is virtually impossible.”

The BSF scheme would also have been a major boost to the construction industry. We run a workshop here in our building in Wheatsheaf House teaching basic construction industry skills and have noticed a sharp decline in the number of apprenticeships available in the industry.

On Monday 12 July the Daily Echo initiated their Best Deal for Our Schools campaign to ensure that Southampton schools receive its fair share of the new funding that will be available and today in the Daily Echo Southampton’s MP John Denham is urging residents to rally to the call and come together to fight ‘for everything it can get for the future of its children.’.

Southampton schools, with one or two notable exceptions, have struggled to achieve higher standards over the last few years. Low aspiration is one of the main issues holding them back, and going to school in outdated and deteriorating buildings is not the way to encourage pupils to raise their sights.

Jonathan Cheshire
Chief Executive

The competition is a YSDF (Youth Sector Development Fund) initiative and the nine groups participating must all identify a local issue that needs addressing to improve the area for the general public.

And Wheatsheaf’s REAcT2 Youth Project group has just six weeks to get their entry in!

The first project session was held yesterday morning, Wednesday 7 July.

Project leader, 17-year-old Wayne: “We spent the morning phoning the Council, finding out about the Common, discussing what we think needs to be done and  talking about suggestionss for funding and sponsorship.”

At the moment ideas under consideration  that will in 18-year-old Sam’s words - and who’s in charge of admin and publicity - “make the Common a safer and better place, safer and better  for the people of Southampton and for their kids,” include installing better lighting, more bins and CCTV cameras, as well as providing more chairs and  cleaning-up areas where there’s most litter.

Priority areas to be addressed will be discussed next week at a meeting the group has set up with the Hawthorn Urban Wildlife Centre based at the Common.

Sam has some great ideas for publicity and attracting funders: “We’re trying to find sponsorship or perhaps get the Prince’s Trust involved. We’re looking at going on Unity Radio to promote the project, and also Galaxy FM might help.”

The work for the project was supposed to be done during weekly youth opportunity sessions at Wheatsheaf but as Wayne says, “We’ve only got six weeks and so Sam and I will be working together outside the group. We’re going to be working really hard on this.”

Emma, Wheatsheaf’s project coordinator is delighted with the enthusiasm shown by the group. “The project will help develop team-working skills, teach them how to communicate and understand different points of view and ways of working.

“It will also encourage them to look into different types of career that they may not have thought of, such as publicity or event organisation.”

If you want to find out how the group is getting on with their plans, check out the weekly updates on this website!

Wheatsheaf Trust delivers the Youth Sector Development Fund programme in partnership with HIOW Youth Options and Motiv8.

But six months on and having been on two of Wheatsheaf’s programmes Tina’s self-confidence has soared and she is now working in a job that she says “suits her perfectly”.

Tina had last worked in 1997, employed in a warehouse. But this lasted for only four weeks as for personal reasons Tina was forced to give up work and for the next 12 years she was involved in family commitments.

A single-parent with three children aged 17, 14 and seven, at the beginning of 2010 Tina decided that the two youngest, who were still living at home, were old enough for her to go back to work.

She felt she’d been ‘stuck at home’ and was ready and able to support a life-style change and look to improve her finances.  

But after applying for “job after job and getting nothing but rejections” Tina was becoming despondent.

Hoping to get some help with writing her CV Tina turned to Net-a-Job.

She discovered, however, that the EAC had much more to offer her in the way of support.

Eligible as a lone parent, on 27 January 2010 Tina joined our Reach Out programme which provides 1-1 support for clients and is designed individually for each client to suit specific  needs.

Having felt that a lack of experience wasn’t helping in her job search, Tina increased her skills knowledge while on Reach Out by doing basic IT skills training before joining our Launch Pad programme, which supports lone parents who want to work, improve their levels of self-confidence and develop new and/or update existing skills, and includes access to work placements plus practical advice sessions on how to find jobs and training opportunities.

Of the programme Tina said, “Everyone’s very warm, friendly and welcoming and our trainer is great. She makes if very easy. We wouldn’t want to come here otherwise.”

On Tina’s programme skills units included three level 2 training modules, in First Aid, Health and Safety Manual Handling, and Food Safety in Catering. Mid-May Wheatsheaf held a Special Award Ceremony to celebrate the success of all participants passing each module and Tina arrived armed with the news that that morning she’d been offered a job!

She said, “The programme has really helped to build up my confidence. I made new friends and met people in the same situation. It was really helpful to talk to people with similar problems.”

Of her job, working part-time in a term-time role as a cleaner at a local school, she commented, “It’s great. It fits in perfectly with my childcare commitments.

“The children are really excited about my working.  They gave me a congratulations card and I think that my being in work sets them a really good example.

“I’m now able to do much more stuff with them, too. It’s great - I can take them to the shops and buy them things now.’

And of the support she has had from Wheatsheaf Tina says “If I hadn’t come to Wheatsheaf Trust I would still be at home, wondering what to do.”

Reach Out is funded by the Department of Work and Pensions/European Social Fund (via VT Careers Enterprise) and is a community outreach service to help people progress to employment. Wheatsheaf runs the programme in Southampton and Havant.

Launch Pad is run as part of the Jobcentre Support Contract REFRESH project.

For more information about either programme, contact Jackie Powers on 023 8023 7662.

Lizzie and two clients on Wheatsheaf’s employment programme were asked about their thoughts following the Budget announcements and on the effect the changes could have on the lives of  Wheatsheaf clients.

BBC South Today starts at 6.30pm.