Tottenham unemployment rates to be tackled (From Haringey Independent)

Tottenham unemployment rates to be tackled

9:31am Thursday 23rd October 2008 in Top Stories By Charlotte Gray

Families most at risk from unemployment in Tottenham will be given extra help finding jobs.

Northumberland Park has the highest unemployment rate in London, at 13.7 per cent, often leaving different generations of the same family without income.

Now a new project has been launched to provide training and support to adults and young people to help them into work.

The Families to Work initiative is being launched by Haringey Council tomorrow and will work with families in North Tottenham, trying to overcome the barriers they face in finishing school and finding work.

Cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, Councillor Kaushika Amin, said: “The Families to Work project is about breaking the cycle of unemployment in Northumberland Park, to stop worklessness being virtually passed on from generation to generation.

“The project’s about making people more aware of the jobs available and giving them the support they need to get those jobs.

"It’s about helping children to come out of school with good qualifications and with ambitions to go out into the world and make the best of themselves.

“But we recognise that issues and barriers to employment can vary wildly from family to family. That’s why we’re offering a very intensive and tailored approach, working with families to find individual solutions that will help jobseekers find long-term employment."

The scheme is a voluntary programme and will develop action plans with famililies, which will then be shared with schools or adult social services who can offer job support.

Mrs Amin added: “This is a programme that has the potential to transform the lives of thousands of children and adults, and I would urge people to get in touch and take advantage of it.”

The Families into Work Team will be based at Northumberland Park Neighbourhood Resource Centre in Park Lane.

For more information call 020 8489 2852 or email familiesintowork@haringey.gov.uk