News

Message from the AWEMA Chair

THROUGH ALL OUR CURRENT TROUBLES WE REMAIN OPEN FOR BUSINESS AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AGAIN AT OUR OFFICES IF YOU NEED OUR SUPPORT

All the negative publicity in the past few weeks has made this a very difficult time for AWEMA: difficult for our clients who rely on us to support them as they seek to develop and improve their lives, and difficult for our staff to work through all the disruption.

The trustees and I have been addressing the issues raised with us by the Charity Commission and our Welsh Government and Welsh European Funding sponsors, and we will continue to address them with vigour. Past wrongdoing has been dealt with and any wrongdoing identified in the future will also be dealt with. But we owe a duty of care to all our staff and we will not betray their confidence no matter how much we want to counter the misinformation which has been put about.

The Welsh Government Internal Audit team is conducting a review of our internal financial controls and governance and will report in due course. I anticipate that we will implement all the recommendations made to us regarding improvements to our policies, systems and processes. Indeed the trustees have already identified several areas where we need to improve how we do our work and manage our systems.

Until the Welsh Government Internal Audit team has reported, we are unable to make any comment on media reports.

But I can give my assurance and that of all our trustees that AWEMA staff will continue to make every effort to meet the challenging targets set for us by our funders in the projects we deliver to assist young unemployed young people and adults into employment, and to assist those in employment to improve their skills.

Rita Austin                                                                                                                                                  Chair, AWEMA

Eid Celebrations Donation

During the AWEMA Eid Celebrations at the end of last year with the Pakistani Community, a total of £1500 was collected from the community for Islamic Relief to help Pakistani Flood victims and for the Emergency Fund for East Africa. This was on the occasion of promoting the European Funded Projects on employability, attended by 140 people.

Bollywood Dance Workshops

As part of our activities under P1 project [Young People Aiming High], Bollywood dance workshops will be taking place from Wednesday, 4 May 2011.

These sessions are aimed at young people from the ages of 14 to 19 years old and are free. If you are interested please speak to Ourania Chatsiou on 01792 475509 to register or send an e-mail to ouraniachatsiou@awema.org.uk .

Projects & Funding

Core Funding

In April 2010, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Division [EDID] of the Welsh Assembly Government [WAG] approved AWEMA’s core funding to March 2013 [£325K]. Other than AWEMA’s ability to use this core funding to lever in additional ESF funding, the project has to achieve four outcomes. They are:

i.                Integrating diverse and achieving cohesive communities

ii.              Fulfilling people’s and communities potential

iii.            Through advocacy and advice support accessing services

iv.           Engaging people and communities in WAG Policy Development

ESF Priority 1 - Tackling Underachievement and Raising the Skills and Aspirations of Young People

The Welsh European Funding Office [WEFO] has approved this P1 project to June 2013 at a gross value of £2.2 million. The focus of this project is to mentor, signpost and support young people to raise their aspirations through confidence building measures to prepare them for the labour market. Support will be provided to complement and add value to statutory provisions.

ESF Priority 2 - BME Employment for All

WEFO have approved this project to June 2012 at a gross value of £3.9 million. The project focuses on pre-employment training and confidence building through spoken English support. The aim is to raise participant’s progression from economic inactivity or unemployment into sustainable employment.

ESF Priority 3 - Raising Skills Levels of People in Low Level Employment

This WEFO approved project to June 2014 at a gross value of £2.3 million, focuses on supporting people to take actions to improve their employment status, through advice, counselling or training. The target groups are often in low skills levels of employment, low paid and in insecure employment in cleaning, social and health care, retail, wholesale and production. They often have high levels of education.

Main Sponsors