Sponsored by
Is dodgeball the answer to youth unemployment?
Employability consultant for Inspira Solutions, Jo Haddrick, with some of the young unemployed taking part in activities at Sans Street Community Centre.
DODGING balls has led to landing jobs for a group of unemployed young people.
A course in dodgeball and employability skills has opened a world of opportunity to the 18 to 21-year-olds.
Community Interest Companies North East Sport and Inspira Solutions teamed up to land £9,000 of funding from the Department for Work and Pensions’s Flexible Support Fund to get people off benefits and into work.
And so far they can boast of a student finding coaching work in Dubai and another gaining a place at university.
The group meet every week at Sans Street Community Centre in Sunderland’s East End.
As well as keeping fit and having fun, they have also been given tips on how to brush up their employability skills - with resounding success.
One girl was offered a job coaching in Dubai after just three weeks on the course.
Corey Barnes, of Queen Alexandra Road, in Sunderland, was a former semi-professional footballer who had spent four months on the dole.
The 21-year-old has now been offered a place on a teaching qualification at Northumbria University in Newcastle.
Corey, who has also worked with disabled children at Castlegreen Community School in Hylton Castle, is also heading off to Sweden to play football over the summer.
He said: “It definitely would have been a lot harder without this.”
Fellow student Bradley Anderson is also back into the world of work, with a work trial at car giant Nissan.
But the 19-year-old from Hendon also kept up his weekly dodgeball sessions.
“It’s about keeping active and doing something else,” he said.
Jo Haddrick, from Inspira Solutions, said: “Some of them have gone on to do their referee FA level one course and specialist youth training with the FA and dodgeball level one.
“It’s encouraging them to get out of bed and get active.
“Then we are doing group work around interview techniques and what employers are looking for, then working with them one-to-one.
“90 per cent of them are coming every week.” Although funding for the course is due to come to an end, Joanna and Peter Curtis from NE Sport are looking at other cash pots to keep the sports elements of the sessions running.
Peter, who moved his not-for-profit organisation into Hendon’s Container City last year, said: “Some of them have nothing else to do and it is keeping them off the streets.”
Twitter: @janethejourno
Email to a friend
Print this page- Boss Di Canio wants six new men for Sunderland
- Bus crashes into Sunderland JobCentre
- Pool pervert used shoe mirror to spy on woman changing in Sunderland Aquatic Centre
- Survival assured, Sunderland boss can plan future
- ‘You can’t live a lie and spend your life feeling sad’ – transgender modelling competition finalist tells all
- DOBSON MARKS START OF HEALTH C
- Di Canio: Sunderland players will get a shorter summer break if they don’t perform well at Tottenham
- Last post is 6.30pm (but get here by 5.30pm)
- TV chef Martin Blunos takes over the kitchen at Seaham Hall
- Sunderland museums and arts centres lose out as donations head to London
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sunderland
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
