Job scheme boosts confidences

Press, 7 December 1988, Page 9

Job scheme boosts confidences

An employment initative in the inner-city has given one Christchurch man an incentive to “hang on to life.” Mr Allain Green, aged 45, a solo parent, belongs to the Gloucester Labour Pool, one of several initatives being set up as a community development, by residents in east Christchurch. “It’s lifted my confidence from rock-bottom to overflowing. In fact it’s really made life worth hanging on for.” Under the scheme unemployed people in the area offered a cheap good-quality household

and gardening maintenance service in an effort to subsidise their benefit incomes. It did not exceed the maximum $5O to $6O allowed, said Mr Green. Mr Green said the labour pool had given him a sense of belonging in the community, a constructive outlook and a positive structure to his days. Mr Green has four children, aged 10 to 17 years. Two are still at home. He gave up a caretaker’s job 11 months ago, partly so he could look after them, but he was still keen to do some work in the community.

Another member of the labour pool, Mr Paul Donnelly, aged 31, was made redundant last year from his job as a french polisher. Mr Donnelly said the scheme helped keep him motivated, even though he was on a sickness benefit. The group had not done many jobs so far, but some clients had been “pleasntly shocked to see me do such a good job of their gardening,” he said. Teaching skills and helping motivate other people who also felt “pretty bad” about being unemployed was also satisfying,

said Mr Donnelly. The Labour and Social Welfare departments had so far been supportive of the labour pool concept, said Mr Green. A charitable trust was being set up for the labour pool to enable it to apply for funding and to remain independent. The merits of the scheme have already been recognised by the Community Organisations Grants Scheme, which announced last week it would give $BOOO for a paid job-shared co-ordinator’s position for six months.