Portland Pathways Secures Another Award Win for its Impact on our Community!

We’re proud to announce that Portland Pathways (@PortlandCollege) were crowned winners of the East Midlands Chamber Community Impact Award at a prestigious online awards ceremony on 26 November.

This wonderful recognition celebrates the crucial impact that Portland Pathways continues to have on our local communities.

Portland College launched the Pathways initiative in 2017 and so far, it has had 782 referrals, with 76% of those being people with disabilities.

Our overall objective as a charity is to promote independence, health and well-being and employability and provide vulnerable people with better futures.

Portland Pathways’ objectives are closely aligned and by bridging the disability employment gap locally, people benefit from more independent futures and better health and well-being through the positive impact of employment.

With hubs in Mansfield and Sutton in Ashfield, Portland Pathways aims to support individuals to gain employment, and to help businesses to recruit the right staff for their roles.

We also offer a range of courses to help our clients to develop their skills and prepare for employment. Our Recovery College courses, in partnership with the NHS, support people to improve their mental health and our 1:1 counselling service enables clients to develop self-awareness and work through and address personal issues in a positive way.

The service has so far supported 157 people into employment and this continues to grow as we strengthen relationships with local employers. 373 people have enrolled onto Recovery College courses and we have delivered 323 1:1 counselling hours.

Mark Dale, Principal and CEO of Portland College commented;

“The Pathways team really are the best at what they do and this award confirms that.

Our vision of providing all people with disabilities with a lifetime of opportunity is not only achieved through our Further Education and care provision for young people, but in our community hubs for adults too.

With 271 referrals to Pathways in 2019/20, the impact on our community and the local economy is clear. I’m tremendously proud of the team for leading such a successful initiative and our robust plans will ensure that we continue to support employment and economic growth within the region for years to come.

With the current economic downturn and high unemployment rates forecast by the Government for 2021, the need for Portland Pathways has never been greater and the team continue to shine, securing 9 job starts for customers in November.

I also want to pay tribute local employer Linney who have backed Pathways financially for all this time and National Lotteries Community Fund.

If you’re an individual looking for employment, or an employer needing support with your recruitment, I urge you to contact our fantastic team who will do everything they can to help you.”

This prestigious award marks the third award the team have won since launching three years ago, the first award in 2018 was the Chad Business Award for Community Contribution, followed by the Mansfield and Ashfield 2020 Award for Commitment to the Community.

Throughout the pandemic we identified opportunities to help further by hosting the Sutton Community Foodbank ‘Let’s All Eat’ programme at our Outram Street premises.

As a charity ourselves, we know how crucial donations are, particularly during a pandemic where resources are over-stretched, so we further supported the foodbank by donating over 2000 meals and helped them to secure funding to continue for another year.

If you’re looking for employment, need support to develop new skills or want to access our Recovery College courses or 1:1 counselling service, get in touch with Nikki, Cheryl or Simon today.