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Penge gets a slice of PiE
An open day for lone parents looking at employment possibilities held in Penge was extremely successful with 65 people attending. The drop-in event was aimed at those living in the area on Incapacity Benefits or Income support who wanted to take advantage of advice on training and employment.
A one-to-one service was available from a wide range of advisors including Job Centre Plus, Bromley Adult Education, Bromley Childcare, the Housing Benefit Team and NextSteps Careers Advice, amongst others. There were also a number of presentations, one of which was given by Nazan Djemal, manager of the Police Volunteer Programme, who was herself a lone parent refugee before finding employment in the borough.
As a result 30 parents registered on the People into Employment (PiE) programme. This is a 3-year project aiming to get 100 longer-term unemployed back into work. Council-led, the PiE scheme brings together a number of diverse agencies in a coordinated way to achieve this target.
The open day was hosted by Community Vision who provided a crèche and created a welcoming environment to encourage wide attendance.
Margaret Carr, Partnerships Manager from the Council’s Local Economy and Regeneration Team said: ‘The numbers who ‘dropped-in’ were very encouraging, given that our target audience can be difficult to reach. We hope that those registering for PiE will now take advantage of the support available so they can move towards employment. Following on this success, we are planning similar events in other parts of the borough this autumn.”
ENDS
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