Charity to give job hopes to homeless
Social Bite has launched what it says is a pioneering initiative to help transform the access people who have experienced homelessness have to job opportunities across the UK.
Thesocialenterprisesaidthat through its new Jobs First programme, it will work directly with some of the UK’S biggest employers to help break down the barriers people who have been homeless face on their path to employment
To date, businesses including hospitality food service providerbaxterstorey,restaurant, pubandbaroperatormitchells & Butlers, and Andron Facilities Management have signed up with a plan to help create 60 employ ment opportunities for people experiencing homelessness. The program is being part-funded through a grantfromtheoakfoundation, whichsaysitaddressesissuesof global, social and environmental concern.
Socialbitestressedthatitsinitiative,whichguaranteeslivingwageemploymentforeachparticipant, will provide “wraparound” support for both the employer and employee.
Each Jobs First employee will be allocated a support worker from Social Bite who will help them throughout the programme and their employment contract, meeting weekly to offer practical support on bills and forms, as well as emotional guidance
to adapt to working life.
Social Bite will train each employer to help them appropriately guide the employee while the support worker will help facilitate appraisal processes and employee progress.
The social enterprise said the move comes amid fears that more people are set to experience homelessness, due to the endofthefurloughscheme,and increasedlivingcosts,forexample – while there is also currently a lack of workers to fill vacancies.
A worker named George Watson has kick-started the programme, taking on his role with Baxterstorey, which supplies Royal Bank of Scotland’s Gogarburn base where Social Bite recently opened a café.
Josh Littlejohn, chief executive and co-founder of Social Bite, said: “Social Bite started life nine years ago by offering jobs in a small café to people who had experienced homelessness, and over that time we have seen the power of employment to change lives.
“Too often, the response to people experiencing homelessness is to ‘get a job’ – however, it’s not that easy. That’s why the Jobs First programme is so important.
“At a time when the UK is facing a serious labour shortage, we are incredibly proud to be partneringwithmajoremployerstodeliveraprogramofscale throughout the UK that can act as a blueprint for how we can provide employment opportunitiesforhomelessandmarginalised people.”
Social Bite added that over the past four years, it has supported 34 people into employment from a background of homelessness and in total, one quarter of its workforce has been homeless at some point.
Of the 34, many have moved into jobs with other companies, some into higher education, “and in many cases, they have developed careers within Social Bite”.