Employability project hits key milestone

A community employment project is celebrating this week after hitting its target for the number of people engaged on the scheme.

A staggering, 4,088 residents have now been supported by the More Positive Together (MPT) project, which supports Lancashire residents who are furthest from the employment market to lead active lives and improve their prospects.

This means the original target set at 4,067 by December this year has been surpassed with 5 months still remaining.

The good news doesn’t end there though, as a number of other targets set by the funding body have also been exceeded well before the December deadline including the number of unemployed people into employment which counted 569, with the target set at 554.

More Positive Together, a programme funded by the European Social Fund and managed by Active Lancashire, is a collaboration between housing associations, local authorities and third sector organisations, and sees a focused support package offered to their local residents, starting with allocating a dedicated mentor who makes a personal needs assessment and develops an action plan to help overcome any barriers to employment.

Active Lancashire has also built on their expertise to embed wellbeing support into the project which encourages engagement in sport and physical activity to improve health and wellbeing and build confidence.

The latest announcement is testament of the hard work across the partnership, but is not the first time the project has made the headlines since being launched over four years ago. MPT has been continuously recognised both locally and nationally for its unique approach in bringing unfamiliar partners together for the first time to share best practice, winning multiple awards and accolades

MPT Project lead from Active Lancashire, Darren Wright, commented on the latest success saying “I'm really pleased that we have reached this significant milestone in the project. Across the county we have now supported over 4,000 people to lead a healthier and more prosperous life for themselves and their families.

"All the support has continued through the pandemic and all of the partners have adapted really well to find new innovative ways to support people who need it. We are continuing to work with more partners to ensure we can support more people as we make strides to open up the economy”.

 To find out more about the More Positive Together project, please visit: www.activelancashire.org.uk/projects/more-positive-together