Defend Our Local CE Projects! Reject the Cuts! Demand a Fair Review
Latest figures show long-term unemployment is rising sharply (CSO, 9 December 2011) - yet the recent budget threatens the future of our Community Employment Programme for the long-term unemployed!
The Community Employment (CE) Programme has been targeted for massive cuts in the recent budget. If these cuts are implemented, the impact on the local community in the North Inner City will be devastating. These cuts must be taken off the table immediately and a proper review of CE carried out, which involves representatives of the groups who participate in and run CE projects and which recognises the crucial community service role played by CE and the many ways in which CE participants are supported to make progress in their lives.
What is Community Employment (CE)?
CE is a programme designed to help people who are long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups to move towards employment through providing them with work experience and training in jobs in local community services.
What kind of work do CE Projects do?
There are over 20 CE projects in the North Inner City involved in delivery of a wide range of essential community services meeting the needs of local residents, right through from infants to the elderly, and providing support for the most vulnerable groups.
Childcare, Crèches, Drug Rehabilitation programmes, Elderly care, Meals on wheels, Afterschools programmes, Adult education, Literacy, Youth work services, Traveller’s groups, Early school leavers services, Integration of new communities, Community recycling services.
Why is CE so important for participants in the North Inner City?
Long-term unemployment is endemic in parts of the North Inner City which have never recovered from the recession of the 80s, when unemployment reached levels of over 80%. Some people in our community have no experience of having ever worked in paid employment. Lone parents face particular obstacles to participating because of the lack of affordable childcare places.
CE is a crucial bridge from the isolation of long-term unemployment into a supportive community environment that provides the dignity of paid employment along with the opportunity to develop personal, educational and vocational skills that will help people to progress in their lives.
Progression from CE can be into employment, it can also be into further education or training, and it can be into voluntary community activity. Progression can be about developing improved life and social skills which benefit both the participants and their families and help them to make positive choices about their future. Participants in Special CE Drug Projects are supported in progressing from drug use back into normal community life. Progression on CE cannot and should not be judged just in terms of “labour market activation.”
Why is CE so important for the community in the North Inner City?
As well as providing supports for long-term unemployed individuals to make progress in their lives, CE projects are the providers of a whole range of essential services in the North Inner City community.
- Care services are provided for children, for people who are ill and housebound and for elderly people.
- Education and training opportunities are made available for young people, many of them early school leavers and for adults, many of whom did not complete education themselves.
- Children receive additional supports to help keep them in school and gain more from their education and also have access to recreation and play activities.
- There are initiatives which aim to help ethnic minority communities to integrate into the local area and to combat prejudice and discrimination.
- Local people are given an opportunity to get involved in developing new business opportunities e.g. community recycling.
- Special CE Drug Projects provide drug rehabilitation services for recovering drug users in our community and provide crucial supports for people both to move on in their own lives from their drug use and to reintegrate back into the life of the local community.
What cuts have been made to CE payments in this budget?
As and from next January new participants on Community Employment schemes will not be able to retain their lone parents or disability allowance - a loss of €210 per week.
Up until now both of these groups could keep their existing allowance and be paid for 19.5 hours work carried out as part of their CE scheme.
This change will create a major barrier for lone parents who want to participate in CE, as they will not have the income needed to provide for childcare costs. This is a really serious setback for lone parents in our community who want to get back in to education, training and the workplace.
For people on disability payments, they will no longer have the income to meet the additional costs of going out to work that can be incurred by people with a disability.
Further barriers are being put in the way of people in our communities who already have enough barriers to climb!
What cuts have been made to CE running costs in this budget?
The operating budgets for CE i.e. materials and training grants, are being cut by 66% and supervisory costs are being cut by an unspecified percentage.
Many community projects receive funding from other sources as well as CE, but all of this funding is provided for specific work other than CE and it is all being cut at the same time e.g. Local and Community Development budget cut by 8%, HSE grants cut by 5.5%, Local Drugs Task Force budget cut by 2.5% , adult education and literacy budgets cut, allowances to early school leavers in CTWs cut, payments to childcare services cut etc. etc.
There are no alternative sources of funding available to community projects to replace CE budgets if they are cut!
Many of our vital community services cannot be delivered without CE. If the cuts outlined in the budget are implemented many of these services will shut down and those that remain will be delivering a reduced service at a time of greater need in the community. There will be a major loss of opportunities for long-term unemployed people and lone parents in the North Inner City to access work experience and training at a time when long-term unemployment continues to rise. As a serious drug crisis continues to impact on our area, the very limited opportunities for rehabilitation that are in place at the moment will be diminished even further.
DEFEND OUR LOCAL CE PROJECTS! REJECT THE CUTS! DEMAND A FAIR REVIEW!
CONTACT SIPTU: DARRAGH O’CONNOR/PAUL HANSARD doconnor@siptu.ie phansard@siptu.ie
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