Research has shown that, while unemployment
has fallen across Belfast, long-term unemployment is still
concentrated in North and West Belfast. To begin to tackle
this issue an innovative new project was developed. The Futures
Project worked with entire households in North and West Belfast
and the Greater Shankill where a member of the household had
been receiving Jobseekers’ Allowance for more than two
years to help tackle barriers to employment by addressing
educational, training and social barriers.
Futures has been very active over the
past two years. In addition to finalising policies and structures
for project delivery and monitoring, the Project Support Workers
have been promoting the project throughout the study area.
However, in spite of intensive efforts, the project has been
unable to secure a sufficient number of participants.
The project met with the Department for
Employment and Learning (DEL), European Unit in October 2003
to inform of these difficulties and to seek guidance. DEL,
European Unit remains supportive of the project and is particularly
interested in the research findings. It was agreed that the
project could allocate funding from its budget to undertake
an interim review. This review would involve:
-
Examination of the underlying assumptions which formed the
basis for promoting the project, any gaps in these assumptions
and the impact on project delivery;
- Review of the approach taken to marketing the project, the
marketing materials developed and the language used;
- Analysis of the contacts made, structures used for public
relations and deficiencies which have reduced the project's
ability to secure participation; and
- Options for the project (drawing on examples of good practice
from other projects in Northern Ireland and elsewhere), remedial
steps which should be taken to address the shortfall in participant
numbers and recommendations for project alteration or further
review.
The review was completed
in February 2004.
The project is currently
in a phase of evaluation. The evaluation will look at a number
of areas including :
-
What were the problems faced by the Futures Project?
- What was the scale and position of the problems?
- Was it ever possible to shift the problems?
- How do we understand the problems?
- Was the limited success of the Futures Project due to the
size of the problems it faced or was it due to Futures’
methods?
The results of this evaluation will be
made available to existing and future initiatives. It is hoped
that by sharing its learning Futures can continue to have
an impact on unemployed people in North and West Belfast.
The change in emphasis, the evaluation and its findings have
all been supported and welcomed by the project’s partners.
The project officially comes to an end in February 2005.
