Project Hope is an exciting initiative designed specifically to give 16-25yr old care experienced young people from West Yorkshire hope for a better future. It does this by providing young people that are care experienced with career development opportunities including:
- Paid placements across the West Yorkshire health and care sector (6month minimum)
- Tailored pastoral support that is trauma informed
- Subsidised offers for travel, and potentially retail and sport activities
- Involvement with events such as a care leavers jobs fair
- Support with education and training employment skills
We are doing this by building a positive action 12 month programme that has been informed through the National Care Leaver Covenant, reviewing existing local offers for care leavers across West Yorkshire and listening to care experienced young people themselves. Over recent months, a core design team of experts working with care experienced young people and those with expertise in developing leadership programmes have been collaborating together to create the framework for this initiative that is truly trauma informed.
The Mayor’s Office is a pivotal partner of Project Hope initiative and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) are not only considering a placement for a young person within WYCA, they have also agreed to support young people by recently confirming those on the programme will have access to M-Travel cards for free travel to placements. The West Yorkshire Combined Authority are also supporting young people by developing tailored non clinical skills training offers through the SkillsConnect offer.
Similar trends are seen across the North. It therefore comes as no surprise that a lack of social capital often means care experienced young people do not have a network of relationships to rely on to help create opportunities that could improve their life and career prospects for the future. This is why we have designed a positive action project that enables us to work collectively across West Yorkshire to create hope for a better future.
We would like to thank our key stakeholders NHSE, Spectra, Flourished Minds, Princes Trust, Career Matters, the WY Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Inclusivity Champion for their ongoing support and commitment for Project Hope.