The Key Skills Project

A brief History

"We could do a better job, ourselves!"

The idea for the Key Skills project has it's beginnings in the words of a young homeless person who was frustrated at the time taking and the quality of work a local builder was taking to renovate our first property. (1989). This frustration became the source of the inspiration for the development of Key Skills.

In 1991 the Key Skills Project started as a property renovation scheme linking the housing and training needs of young homeless people and the number of empty properties in the area.

Simply put, young people learned building skills whilst providing solutions to their own housing needs.

Young people can gain "real work" skills towards qualifications in; Painting and decorating, joinery, general construction and administration.

Young people can access the project at a variety of entry points through the following:

• Training placement via recognised training agency
• New Deal Scheme - Voluntary Sector Option
• Volunteering - internal/external to organisation
• Pupil work experience scheme via Learning and Skills Councils, Learn2Work, Local Schools etc.

The variety of access points is one of the key successes of the scheme, it enables young people to access at the level they feel most comfortable with. All of the young people on the scheme view it as a stepping stone to further development.

The project has grown and developed from it's roots in Middlesbrough, extending to Stockton-on-Tees retaining a flexibility that has enabled it to adapt to a variety of funding regimes up to the point of employing 10 people and providing a range of building and construction services to customers largely within the voluntary, community and statutory sector.

The Key Skills project has been fundamental to the growth and development of Community Campus '87.

Community Campus '87 now owns 36 properties, the majority renovated by the Key Skills project, providing much needed supported housing for young people and an ongoing rental income for the organisation, measurably contributing to the sustainability of the organisation . The organisation has its own building, in central Stockton, ("The Heaven Project"), which was once a derelict 3 storey nightclub renovated by the Key Skills Project and now provides office accommodation, workshop, drop in, life skills and learning resources for young people.

The Key Skills model has become recognised as an innovative and adaptable response to the diverse and complex needs of young people with housing needs across Teesside.

Key Skills is about making best use of existing provision and available resources to create homes and at the same time invest in marginalised young people, supporting them to help achieve their potential.

The development of the housing stock, the works for external community organisation and the development of the Heaven Project are testament to the hard work of the Key Skills Project, trainees and volunteers.

"He shows you what to do and then lets you have a go and if you do it wrong he tells you how to do it" "If I hadn't have come here I would have been on the dole, sat around getting smashed" Key Skills Trainees interviews for University of Teesside Evaluation Report 2002.

Presently, the Key Skills Project employs 10 people, all of whom have been trainees and/or volunteers on the project. It continues to provide an access point for young disadvantaged people to learn and train in construction, following the creation of Community Campus Trading Ltd, provides excellent value building and construction services to customers. These customers are predominantly from the voluntary, community and statutory sectors, offering high quality, competitively priced works with the added value of continuing to support and develop young people.

Contact;
George Conroy 01642 357364
E-mail:
management@cc87.co.uk