YOGA FOR SINGLE MUMS

How do you engage single mothers who have been out of the workforce for years in a back-to-work programme a n d g ive them the confidence in themselves so that they start to believe they can actually get a job? The answer is Yoga. That is the innovative solution that the social enterprise Step Ahead i s pioneering. And it works. “Our economy needs to upskill the unemployed or we will hit a brick wall,” says Jackie Bedford, chief executive of Step Ahead. “That is where we step in, approaching employability from the employer’s perspective, giving trainees the skills that employers want. There are hundreds of thousands of people on income support who are over 50 or lone parents, who lack the confidence and skills to get into the workplace.

“Nationally, success rates for getting them back into work are very, very low and when invited to an employability course many will make an excuse — such as saying that their child is sick. But they do engage with the yoga as they are getting a free class from an instructor. At the same time we give them employability training, help them to write a CV, talk to them about how to present themselves at interview and advise them on what jobs to go for.

“Our scheme started as a pilot in Lambeth and Southwark last September and we have recently started to help women who are either lone parents or over 50 in Westminster, too. More than a third are now in work.”

Fatumata Sannoh, 37, is one of those who has benefited. After two years of unemployment, the single mother was losing hope and batt l i ng a health condition.

Following Yogabilit y she secured work as a cashier at her local supermarket and says: “I had not done yoga before so I thought I would give it a go. I was struggling and stressed before, but now I am making a life for myself and my children are very excited.”