On Thursday 18th November we brought together over 100 businesses, organisations, and young people from our city at our Tackling Youth Unemployment Together city summit, where we made a series of pledges to support young people into jobs, training and learning opportunities.
This is part of your Labour council’s new ‘Wolves at Work 18-24’ programme which we have backed up with an initial war chest of £3million to help coordinate a ‘one city’ approach to developing interventions to tackle the demoralising scourge of youth unemployment in our city.
At the summit we launched our City Ideas Fund, an initiative which I am confident will disrupt the market in tackling youth unemployment, fostering innovation and new ideas to give our unemployed youngsters hope of a brighter, prosperous future.
The fund offers a one-off grant of between £500 and £10,000, for city employers, partners, voluntary organisations, community groups and individuals to develop ideas and plans which help young people into jobs and learning.
Applicants are encouraged, as part of the application process to address some of the key challenges connected with reducing youth unemployment in the City, including:
- Helping young people to recognise their skills
- Enabling employers to support young people with limited experience of work
- Removing barriers to accessing services and employment
- Engaging with families to support young people with their aspirations
- Improving access to and awareness of available services
- Developing more aspirational and engaging skills opportunities
- Engaging with young people from different backgrounds
As a City we have shown great courage and resolve to come together as ‘one city’ throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – and we need to do the same to secure a brighter future for the youth in our great city.
As Leader of the Council, I would like to take this opportunity to urge city employers, partners, voluntary organisations, community groups and individuals to come forward and apply for the grants available.
Let’s all work together to do our bit to tackle youth unemployment in our city – we know we do not have all the answers, but the City Ideas Fund can be an important catalyst for stimulating fresh thinking in this sphere. It will enable employers, partners, voluntary organisations, community groups and individuals to propose creative and innovative ideas which support young people into jobs and learning opportunities.
We look forward to hearing from you…
Councillor Ian Brookfield
Leader of the Council / Wolverhampton Labour Group
Additional Info
If you have an idea but not sure if it meets the criteria, we encourage you to apply anyway or for more information you can get in touch with the Council by emailing [email protected] or calling the City Ideas Fund phoneline on 01902 290242 (option 1) between 9am and 5pm from Monday to Thursday or from 9am to 4.30pm on Fridays.
All application forms submitted are subject to eligibility checks.
Further communication with businesses and organisations may be necessary if any of the required information is missing.
The deadline for the first round of applications is midday on Friday 17 December 2021.