A leading Borough councillor welcomed a group of newly appointed "community entrepreneurs" who are leading a ground-breaking pilot scheme to tackle child poverty.
South Tyneside Council recently recruited 10 entrepreneurs as part of the Tyne Gateway Child Poverty Project, which is being delivered in both North and South Tyneside.
The aim of the project is to tackle the child poverty that blights the opportunities and aspirations of children and families in some areas of both boroughs.
Councillor Jim Foreman, South Tyneside Council's Lead Member Children and Young People, met with the group to talk about their work and wish them well.
Councillor Foreman said: "It was a pleasure to meet this group and welcome them to the Council's Children and Young People directorate. Each of the group has now taken up a work placement in one of our children's centres, from where they will help families living in deprived areas of the Borough break the poverty cycle by highlighting education and employment opportunities."
The community entrepreneurs will receive training to enable them to develop the skills they need to become links between local families and the support available from the public, private and community sectors.
They will develop projects identified by families living in or at risk of poverty. The projects will be aimed at helping them overcome the many barriers that can stop them from leaving benefits.
They will also look at alternative ways for families to access services that are currently not accessed in sufficient numbers by those families at risk of poverty or in poverty.
Councillor Foreman said: "I was very impressed with every one of the community entrepreneurs and I believe they can make a real difference to the lives of people in the communities in which they work. Each of them will have the opportunity to work with a senior officer from the Council or one of its partners, who will act as their mentor and assist them in delivering their work. I wish them all well."
The Tyne Gateway scheme is funded by the government as an innovation pilot through the Child Poverty Unit within Department for Children, Schools and Families and is initially funded until March 2011.
For further information on the Tyne Gateway Child Poverty Project contact Tracey Richardson on (0191) 426 8100 or email: tracey.richardson@southtyneside.gov.uk
Caption: Councillor Jim Foreman (centre) is joined by South Tyneside's new community entrepreneurs (from front all left to right) Jen Feckie, Suzanne Burn, Wendy Morris, Collette Benton, Margaret Purvis, Julie Cummins, Lee Boyd, Colin Hall and Judith Fulton.
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