The Job Parent programme started in January 2011. It is a government pilot that is running in both Burnley and in Aberdeen to identify what support is necessary for those individuals that are moving from Incapacity Benefit onto Job Seekers Allowance at the current time. Referrals can only come from the Job Centre at this juncture.
The actual service that the Job Parents provide is to meet individually with the client regularly to try to establish where they are in their lives and where they would like to be. It looks at helping to remove barriers to work and provide support for people that are in transition with their lives and are, quite often, facing difficult and complex problems in moving forward.
Housing this particular project within ACVO means that the Job Parents clients have access to the expertise within ACVO itself, and to the entire Third Sector with all the support and experience that these organisations provide to the community at large, both in the city of Aberdeen and in Aberdeenshire itself.
So far over one hundred clients have been referred, and the team of three Job Parents are kept busy providing volunteer opportunities, work placements, access to support groups and a whole host of other support mechanisms that are individually tailored around the client’s particular needs.
