Salford Foundation

Adult Inclusion Team

Parents participating in a skills and aspirational workshop

From teenage parenting to working with ex-offenders and those at risk of offending, the Adult Inclusion Team delivers a wide range of support services, mentoring programmes, information and advice to assist individuals who seek to overcome barriers or setbacks in their lives.

Together Women Project

Women in Salford who may have offended or who are at risk of doing so can access the award-winning Together Women Project and the broad range of services it offers including drug and alcohol support, counselling, parenting skills, employment and training and gender-specific support services.

Operating from a women only centre - with creche - and offering a safe and relaxing environment, the project has a number of specific aims:

• To reduce re-offending
• Avoid family breakdown
• Increase access for women to community-based services
• Divert women from custody

Teenage Parent Project

Salford Foundation manages two teenage parent projects, one in Salford and the other in Manchester.

The Salford project is funded by Big Lottery Fund and aims to improve confidence, health and wellbeing and to support progress and personal development of teenage parents.

It delivers Parents with Prospects, a nationally evaluated and accredited parenting programme and there is input from the local authority's Teenage Pregnancy Team.

The Manchester Teenage Parent Programme is funded by DCSF and offers participants the opportunity to participate in a series of user-led workshops, underpinned by one to one mentoring and peer group support. Workshop themes include parenting skills, healthy living, photography and paediatric first aid.

Marks and Start

Lone parents on income support receive three days employability training and a two-week work experience placement in a Marks & Spencer store through the Marks and Start parenting scheme delivered by Salford Foundation.

The Adult Inclusion Team is contracted by Gingerbread and Marks & Spencer to operate the programme in two cities - Manchester and Chester.

Childcare, travel and lunch allowances are provided and the parents have the opportunity to take part in a specifically designed recruitment process that is a much 'softer' version of the standard model.

Lone parents like Anne Marie Leedham (pictured) often go on to secure full-time employment with M & S or other employers. Anne suddenly found herself having to raise her three children alone but through Marks and Start secured a full-time job in its Chester store. (Picture courtesy Trinity Mirror Chester)

Changing Directions

Changing Directions provides one-to-one mentoring to help individuals with their confidence, housing, debt and financial matters, employability skills and accessing support for substance/alcohol misuse.

This mentoring project is acknowledged within the criminal justice service as an extremely valuable and important intervention process which has had great success in supporting people in Salford who are going through the justice system and those at risk of offending.

These can include 18 - 24 year olds, prolific offenders, BME groups and women.

The work of Changing Directions has been recognised with two recent awards. In 2008 volunteer mentors received an Adult Learning Award in recognition of their learning in preparation for their role as mentors in the community. The Changing Directions team was presented with a 'Highly Commended' Award from the Greater Manchester Criminal Justice Board for their work with ex-offenders and those at risk of offending.

REACH - Salford and Rochdale

In Salford 'REACH' focuses solely on unemployed women living in the 11 most deprived communities in the City, targeting the barriers that prevent employment or training.

Workshops are underpinned by one-to-one mentoring support looking at problems around debt and personal finance, Information Advice and Guidance, benefit advice, childcare advice and speakers from the employment market.

In Rochdale 75% of participants live within the most deprived areas with the remaining 25% from across the borough.

Community Champions

The Community Champions Project was set up in October 2008 and is funded through the Learning and Skills Council and Salford City Council.

The aim is to increase awareness of education, training and employment opportunities within local communities in Salford by recruiting and training local residents as Community Champions who will promote the services available in their respective communities.

Community Champions will be recruited from the following wards in Salford: Barton, Blackfriars, Broughton, Eccles, Kersal, Langworthy, Little Hulton, Ordsall, Pendleton, Walkden North, Weaste, Seedley and Winton.

This project will empower local residents, providing practical information about all the options available.

Residents will receive information in a relaxed and informal setting that will assist them in making informed choices about their future.