Catch22 scoops national ERSA and Children and Young People Now awards
The dedication of the Catch22 teams, delivering high-quality services to those who need them most, is recognised with wins across two national award ceremonies.
Bright Light
The Leaving Care Award – Children and Young People Now
Bright Light has been awarded the Children and Young People Now Leaving Care Award for its employability support to care leavers.
Bright Light supports 16 to 25-year-olds with experience in the care system to get into apprenticeships. Few projects focus on this difficult point of transition – when young people leave the care system – to offer full wraparound support, stretching across their immediate needs, mental and emotional needs and their route into employment. Co-delivered by Catch22 and The Children’s Society and funded by The Clothworkers’ Foundation, beyond improving long-term outcomes, the pilot was developed to better understand barriers associated with this period, so we could develop solutions, share learnings and influence national policy.
Through building a strong and trusted relationship with each care leaver, Bright Light helps them with stabilising their personal circumstances, building their confidence and skills, and then supporting them for up to 18 months during their apprenticeship.
Arcus FM – partner employer for Bright Light
Employer of the Year – ERSA Employability
The ERSA Employer of the Year award is for the employer who has shown “exceptional commitment by partnering with providers in their areas, supporting disadvantaged and long-term unemployed jobseekers.”
Arcus FM has been a model employer over the last year and has changed the lives of vulnerable young people seeking work, training and apprenticeship opportunities. It has worked closely with the Bright Light team to place care leavers into apprenticeships and with Kickstart placements.
The Hertfordshire JETS Team
ERSA Employability Team of the Year – Hidden heroes
The ERSA Employability Team of the Year (Hidden Heroes) celebrates best practices in the employment support sector, specifically for the team working behind the scenes to enable the best employability support service out there.
Hertfordshire’s JETS service supports individuals who have been affected by job losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Delivered in partnership with the Shaw Trust, and with partners Catch22, Jobs 22 and Angus Knight, the contract was mobilised in three weeks and offers an entirely remote service.
The team of 23 staff are achieving record numbers of workshop delivery, designing 60 different workshop sessions and delivering 3,500 remote sessions over the past year. The team has supported more than 11,000 individuals with their search for work.
Inclusion22
The Early Intervention Award – Finalist
Inclusion22, part of the Hampshire 24/7 Substance Misuse Service, was a finalist for Children and Young People Now’s Early Intervention Award.
Inclusion22 is a dedicated service supporting and safeguarding children of substance misusing parents or carers. The service, supporting children of all ages, aims to break inter-generational substance misuse. NHS Hampshire Inclusion Adult Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service and Parent Support Link work closely with the service; providing a substance misusing parent is engaging in support with either service, then partners can make referrals to the team to ensure children are supported too.
81 children have received direct support so far between a team of just two staff members. You can read more about the service here.
Offploy
Offploy, one of Catch22’s Incubate, Accelerate, Amplify recipients also successfully nominated one of their service users as ERSA’s Significant Achiever of the Year. You can read more about her story here.
- Find out more about the Children and Young People Now award winners.
- See the list of ERSA Employability Award winners.
- Read more about the Bright Light programme here.
