Brighton businesses awarded Kickstart grant worth almost £300,000
A group application for the government Kickstart Scheme has today been accepted, creating 28 new jobs in Brighton and Hove for young people who are at risk of long-term unemployment.
The grant worth almost £300,000 has come as a relief to 10 local businesses and charities that have all been impacted by the economic downturn prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beth Lewis, Managing Director at Projects and group application representative, said: “We are delighted to have been successful in our application; for many of the businesses in our group, including us, this is game changing support. Our team will more than double thanks to the grant which will have a huge impact on how we are able to support our community of small businesses and freelancers, and beyond.
“As a gateway organisation, we will be providing on-the-job training, mentoring and careers advice to the young people involved in the Scheme, which I know will be invaluable to all candidates as they grow their careers.”
Project Harar, a Brighton-based charity dedicated to providing treatment for Ethiopians with complex facial disfigurements is among the successful organisations in the group to be awarded the Kickstart grant.
Jackie Riley, CEO of Project Harar, added: “The Kickstart grant is amazing news for us. Like many other small charities working in health outreach, we’ve had to adapt the nature of our work in the wake of the pandemic, our overall workload has increased and funding has been a greater challenge. Having another member of the team will allow us to nurture new areas of our work and open up opportunities to interact with new potential funders for our programmes.”
The successful Kickstart application, fronted by Projects, is one of many with 120,000 new six-month job placements created so far across the UK. For more information on the Scheme and how to apply, visit, www.gov.uk/government/collections/kickstart-scheme.