New £5.8m scheme to help city neighbourhoods flourish

A £5.8million scheme to close the gap between Sunderland’s neighbourhoods has been launched.

The Sunderland Community Led Local Development Programme (CLLD) is a fiveyear programme aiming to help boost the job prospects and training of people in council wards including Pallion, Redhill, Southwick, Millfield, Sandhill, Hendon and Washington North.

Among its targets, the programme aims to help:

More than 2,200 people in some of the city’s most disadvantaged communities to take advantage of employability, training and skills development activities;

419 people into work or training after the support;

259 participants into employment including self-employment;

171 people who aren’t currently in work or looking for work into employment or job search on leaving;

317 potential entrepreneurs ready to set up their own businesses;

enterprises receiving support, of which 109 will be new enterprises;

Increase the numbers employed by 116 full-time employees in those enterprises which are supported.

The money is made up of £3.05million of European Funding and a further £2.75million match funding.

Coun Cecilia Gofton, Portfolio Holder for Responsive Services and Customer Care, said: “This is all about bringing together local communities to explore and understand the challenges and experiences in their own communities and helping them to come up with positive solutions to tackle these.”

Applications for a share of the funding will be invited.

More information about the project is available at: www.sunderlandclld.org. uk.