Young Homeless People receive Awards for achievement

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Young homeless people from the New Horizon Youth Centre were presentedwith certificates for their achievement for the European Social Funded projectEnhanced LifeSkills.

New Horizon Chair Jon Snow, Channel 4 newsreader was pleased to handout certificates to the young people for completing the European ComputerDriving Licence Qualifications (ECDL), he said:

“What has happened at New Horizon in conjunction with the Learning andSkills Council has been a long time coming, we have finally managed to bringaccredited training to some of the most dispossessed young people inLondon, and it is proof positive that the partnership between the statutoryfunding bodies and the voluntary sector can work even in the toughestcircumstances.”

The Rt Hon Frank Dobson MP also addressed visitors at the centre by saying:”New Horizon and it’s projects have been a stunning success helping people who find it hard to make ends meet or have nowhere decent to live who have previously missed out of education. This project has shown what can be done when people work as a partnership ““ the centre is going from strength to – strength ““ the injection of European Social Funding is making a world ofdifference to these young peoples lives”.

The Enhanced Lifeskills Programme is a partnership between the charity NewHorizon Youth Centre and Camden ITeC, which provides up to 250 young people with weekend access to a community-based programme of accredited Information Communication and Technology (ICT) training, life skills programmes and personal advice in a highly supportive environment. The centre is the only one is London that provides the homeless with a centre for this type over the weekend.

New Horizon Youth Centre is a day centre for young people who are homeless and vulnerable. It is a charity dedicated to providing services for young people who are surviving in and around the Kings Crossarea of London. New Horizon Youth Centre staff are proactively involved with the prevention of social exclusion by working with young people who are either homeless or at high risk of becoming homeless.

The Programme targets 16-to-19 year olds, 83% of whom are from the central London boroughs. Many of the homeless people are not currently in employment or undertaking any other form of education or training, these individuals feel socially excluded, this is not made any easier by the fact that homelessness can lead to transitory lifestyles, however this project is making a difference by providing a base that the young people can have access to ““one that offers the chance to rebuild confidence and the chance to make adifference to impoverished lives.

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