Member Article

CEG partners with The Skill Mill

CEG has launched a partnership with the Leeds branch of social enterprise The Skill Mill, providing work and training opportunities for young people who have been involved with the Youth Offending Service.

A team of young people has come on board from the very beginning of the Kirkstall Forge project in West Leeds, enabling an inclusive approach that will see them thoroughly inducted and introduced to all staff and work programmes across the site.

The young people will work on tasks such as painting, clearing waterways, managing vegetation and materials management, learning valuable skills that will prepare them for further employment.

The team also participated in the post-flood clean up in early January, when CEG mobilised its workforce to assist the community.

Jon Kenny, director of CEG, said: ‘Supporting the local community is important to us and we’re pleased to be able to play a small part in helping young people in the area get back on their feet.

‘Kirkstall Forge is a really significant project in the area and the lads on site should feel proud of the role they’ve played in getting construction off the ground.’

The Skill Mill has been established in Leeds following a successful pilot in the north east of England. It is a unique, not for profit social enterprise which employs young people who have been involved with the Youth Offending Service aged 16-18 to carry out flood risk management, environmental, horticultural and watercourse management works.

The model aims to increase engagement, participation, employability and educational levels of the young people and move them closer to long term sustainable employment. It also leads to reduced re-offending, improved habitats and environments and increased community safety.

Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, councillor for Kirkstall and lead member for children’s services said: ‘The Skill Mill is doing wonderful work in the community and I am thrilled to see the team contributing to the future of Leeds through its involvement in the Kirkstall Forge project.’

Andy Peaden, Head of Service at Leeds Youth Offending Service, added: ’Gaining skills and engagement in education, training and employment are crucial in reducing reoffending by young people and enabling them to move on and live more productive lives.

‘The Skill Mill provides a chance for our young people take their first steps in employment, to gain invaluable experience, and in this partnership with CEG they are being provided with a fantastic opportunity to do this whilst at the same time improving the local environment and contributing towards the development of a key local initiative.’

Kirkstall Forge is one of the largest regeneration schemes and the most ambitious project in the north of England. £300m is programmed for investment in the site over the next five years, creating more than 2,400 new jobs and enabling almost 10,000 people to live and work on this site by 2020.

Work has already begun on a 15,534 sq m, seven storey office building that will form part of an office park, meeting pent-up demand for high quality flagship office space in Leeds, and further reserved matters planning applications will be submitted in the coming months for the first phase of residential development.

Ultimately, the Kirkstall Forge development will offer prime office space and new homes with fantastic facilities in a stunning riverside, woodland location with unsurpassed transport connections into Leeds, Bradford and the Yorkshire Dales.

The development secured the National Placemaking Award for Best Mixed-use Development 2015. The judging panel, which includes urban designers, planners, housebuilders, regeneration companies, the Prince’s Regeneration Trust and English Heritage, said they loved the scheme’s scale, ambition, partnership and environmental values.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Isobel Jokl .