South Durham Community Led Local Development (CLLD)

The project offers one to one mentoring support with a qualified and experienced mentoring officer, providing you with information, advice and guidance (IAG) to help people get into employment.

This includes:

• talking with you about your motivation and goals
• getting to know you, your situation and what you will need to move forward
• help to access courses and training to improve your skills
• learning about volunteering, work placements and other opportunities
• exploring the benefits of self-employment
• linking in with other services such as housing, health or Money Matters
• practical steps to make your job search more successful
• ongoing support to help you settle in to your next step

For full details visit Employability Mentoring or call 03000 262 009.

This project has completed and no longer delivers activity after 30 September 2021.

The Reach Project focuses on those who are aged 25+ unemployed or economically inactive, who are looking to upskill or retrain or may have barriers stopping them from moving forward.

The project has fully trained mentors who can offer one-to-one support including help with CV's, digital skills to enhance job searching and will be hosting a job club. 

They will also look at vacancies that will match a your current skills or help you upskill or retrain where there is a need within the labour market.

To find out more information about the Reach Project please contact: catherine@cornforthpartnership.org 

The project is a grant scheme which businesses in the South Durham CLLD area can apply to for grants between £1,000 - £2,000 at a fixed rate of 35%.

The purpose of business growth grants is to enable businesses to make investments in greater sustainability and/or growth and job creation. 

The eligible expenditure for activities includes: 

• purchase of tools or machinery 
• purchase of computer equipment
• premises improvement or expansion 
• consultancy for business growth planning 
• consultancy for business strategy development
• consultancy for HR strategy and staff development 
• consultancy for marketing planning & activities 
• website design & development 
• product or process development & business diversification 
• financial planning 
• consultancy for the development of new or improved systems and procedures 

To find out more about the Durham Business Growth Grant.

My Chance, My Future is here to support unemployed individuals get closer to the labour market and into employment.

The project uses a different approach to achieve this, local history and heritage, building a sense of community between the groups. 

The programme is delivered over 12 weeks with 8 weeks of additional individual support. Sessions run twice a week initially, building to include work taster sessions and supported volunteering opportunities. 

Part of the 12-week programme includes organising a visit or hosting an event, for which you will make all the decisions, have ownership and responsibility of what you do and how you spend your budget. The project will help you develop a range of employability skills.

Find out more information about My Chance, My Future.

FIRST works alongside education, councils, business and community organisations to develop enterprise skills so that early stage founders build sustainable start-ups and local jobs are created in the South Durham CLLD area. Topics may include:

• spot opportunities and develop business ideas
• gather resources such as funding and customers
• turn plans into action
• what skills are needed to run a business
• what the risks are to starting a business
• how to ask for help in your local business community
• bookkeeping
• processing data
• bank procedures
• computerised software

For more information about the Skills to Start project please contact Charlotte@youarefirst.co.uk.

Bridge Creative is a local enterprise CIC engaging in delivering the development of workshop / training facilities. This activity will contribute towards the growth of social enterprise businesses within the South Durham CLLD area. The Local Development Strategy highlights bringing under utilised assets into use as business space. Facilities may not be restricted to office space but include small workspace activities. This proposal supports bringing a building back into use through providing workshop space for local businesses wishing to develop and grow.

For more information contact bridgecreative@outlook.com.

A priority within the European Regional Development Fund Operational Programme is to promote entrepreneurship, via the provision of advice and support to develop entrepreneurial skills and attitudes, with a focus on increasing the number of business start-ups. One objective of this project is to encourage business start-ups. 

Building upon local assets through the mobilisation of local resources in pursuit of economic growth is another priority. This project will implement a support programme and provide a grant scheme to businesses looking to recover from Covid or potentially grow. There will be a focus on existing businesses and providing a support package to help them investigate new markets, plan their business operations effectively and contribute to increased productivity.

This activity is delivered by South Durham Enterprise Agency, contact sarah@theeneterpriseagency.co.uk for more information.
 

The focus of activity appears to be to increase the number of self-employment opportunities within the creative sector, support existing businesses and encourage a more entrepreneurial society within the creative sector. This will support and strengthen economic performance.

Activity is delivered by People Into Enterprise Ltd, Trading as Create North. Contact jane@createnorth.co.uk for more information.