London Day Centre More Relevant Than Ever, Says Chancellor Gordon Brown

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Companies are being urged to make use of the only day centre for your people in London by Chancellor Gordon Brown, who views the project as being just as vitally important now as ever.

After visiting the Kings Cross centre, the Chancellor congratulated it in its achievements in “motivating and linking over 3,000 young people a year back into the mainstream of education, training and employment”. He stressed the continuing relevance of the New Horizon centre, saying that it was “even more relevant today than at any time in its 37-year history”.

He went further in praising the initiative, saying: “[there is] no better project in Central London than this, the only specific young people’s day centre, providing a range of services: training, advice, referrals into accommodation, counselling, advocacy and support.” The project is supported by the European Social Fund (ESF), which enables it to run a number of projects assisting the homeless.

Weekend Skills for Life Project

These comments from the Chancellor were given at an event aimed at making the cooperation of the voluntary and business sectors ever deeper and more frequent. Jon Snow, Channel Four News presenter and chair of the New Horizon Centre for more than 25 years, commented: “What better location than at Claridge’s [where the event was held, attended by more than 80 business leaders] for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to meet and discuss the opportunities and issues for the voluntary sector.

The Weekend Skills for Life Project is a pioneering partnership between New Horizon Youth Centre and Camden ITeC, a specialised designated training provider for those currently unemployed and / or disaffected with learning. Using the centres” complementary expertise, the project will offer high level training, vocational programmes and support in Basic Skills, social skills and ESOL to at least 150 unemployed beneficiaries over the two year period. Another part of the project intends to offer vocational activities and LOCN ““ accredited training in ICT, basic and social skills to a minimum of 125 beneficiaries over two years.

Jethro Marsh

Welcome the Chancellor’s support for this project in the FE Blog

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