Kevin Fitzgerald explains how Cardiff’s Young Builders Scheme (YBS) took him from the edge of a personal abyss to drinks with Tony Blair.
The People
The dawn of the new millennium didn’t feel like a new era for 21 year old Kevin Fitzgerald. Separated from his family, no job, a criminal record for petty crime. ’Home’ for the last 2½ years had been a homeless persons’ hostel, where many of his fellow residents were struggling with drug and alcohol problems.
With commendable understatement Kevin now looks back on it as ‘… pretty depressing…’, but to his credit he knew he had to halt his personal decline.
The turning point was YBS. ‘One of the guys in the hostel gave me Cardiff Community Housing Association’s leaflet about the scheme. A chance to train, to do a qualification, to move out of the hostel and to build my own flat? It seemed too good to be true, but I thought – why not?.’
Within weeks Kevin was on-site, attending college and out of the hostel. ‘As part of the deal CCHA gave me temporary accommodation across the road from the site and support so that I could get used to living independently.’
The flat was a modest affair but Kevin remembers it as a ‘palace’.
Kevin successfully completed the training and his NVQ in Carpentry and moved into the new rented flat he had helped build in 2001. ‘It was mine and it was something I’d wanted for so long – I knew there would be no going back.’
Today Kevin has been working for three years. Yet, the hostel is no distant memory – because for over two years Kevin has been working there as a Support Worker! It’s this work in the hostel and the surrounding community that resulted in his recognition as a ‘social entrepreneur’ by the Prime Minister and a visit to No.10.
So how did a NVQ in Carpentry lead to drinks with Tony Blair? ‘Because, before YBS no one gave me a chance. It connected me with the world of work; it set me goals and gave me a sense of achievement and pride. It was the critical first step and without it I wouldn’t be in the position I am now.’
Not all the Young Builders end up at Number 10. Yet, they are like Kevin in that at the start of the programme they are unemployed, lack work experience and qualifications. All too often they are homeless or living in temporary accommodation, and enduring problems associated with disadvantage and exclusion.
The Scheme
The Young Builders project started in 1999 and has developed incrementally over the last five years.
The project’s objective is to develop a multi-agency approach to deliver sustainable outcomes for young people by breaking the, no job, no home cycle.
The project has four key components:
- the provision of a training programme with support for young (18-25 years), unemployed, socially excluded people to help them achieve and prosper
- the provision of self-contained housing with support for the duration of the Project to prepare the participants for successful independent living in the future
- a real opportunity for employment in a recognised building trade at the end of the programme
- for those in housing need the opportunity to secure permanent accommodation upon successful completion of the programme
The Partnership
The programme is the result of a partnership between:
- the Sustainable Communities Partnership (SCP) (Cadwyn, Cardiff Community and Taff Housing Associations) – who provide the training placements via their development work, temporary accommodation during the training programme and the permanent accommodation at the end of the Project
- Young Builders Trust Wales – who co-ordinate the training, work experience and support and manage the funding process
- Cardiff Chamber Trading – who deliver the training in the four key building skills of carpentry, painting and decorating, plastering and brick laying
- Employment Services – who are the source of referral via New Deal
- YMCA – who provided personal support for the young people for the first two phases of the programme. In the third phase the support is provided by YBT
- The Building Contractors – selected from the approved panels of the SCP and Cardiff County Council, they provide the on-site training and work experience
The funding over the last five years has been secured from the European Social Fund (ESF), New Deal, the partners involved and the private contractors who provide training placements for the participants.
To ensure the achievement of these aims, the project:
- provides incentives to trainees above financial reward, ie housing, travel allowances, tool allowances etc
- arranges placement opportunities
- introduced training clauses into contract conditions for new contractors
- encouraged the relaxation of contract conditions to allow training to take place on site
- provides access to support through agencies such as the YMCA and Cardiff Community Housing Association’s Cardiff Foyer
- provides bespoke pastoral support for the young people through specialist workers
- draws additional sources of funding to existing funding streams, eg European Social Fund
- has created a training and work environment that provides the opportunity for young people to succeed
Outcomes
Since the initial programme started, with the construction of Bowley Court in Splott, 22 Young Builders have successfully graduated all achieving NVQ level 1/2 in one of four building trades. The vast majority have secured permanent employment – 75% of the Phase II graduates. Bowley Court remains home to some of the original young builders.
The current phase of the Project provides fifty training places over two years. This time the programme is not just limited to training for eighteen to twenty five year olds. Anyone under fifty can apply.
For more information on the Young Builders, please contact: Kevin Protheroe, Chief Executive, Cardiff Community Housing Association, tel 029 2046 8470, or email Kevin Protheroe.