Nomination for ITV People's Choice Awards - Q&A with Angela Gregg

Fresh Start Charity is excited to be shortlisted for this prestigious Television Award and we are currently in the process of completing our application to be included in the next stage of selection. 

Q1.  What’s your project idea & aim. What led you to this project and what difference you hope to make? 

A.   Fresh Start & Coffee Youth Opportunities in Ipswich was created because since July 2019, we were able to build a trust with our families and ask why they needed our support and try to get them further support by signposting them to different organisations.  During the pandemic we supported many more families, elderly and young people. Young people asked to volunteer in our Charity shop and found the work really interesting and this prompted the idea to start a programme in Ipswich specifically for 16-24 NEET individuals.

So we identified a gap in the market for the younger generation, who for many reasons either left college, didn’t get the grades they wanted, mental health problems, couldn’t get a job, and other reasons, they appeared to feel lost in society.  The age group 16-24 year olds, are classed as NEET (not in Education, Employment or Training) and the government statistics of this group of people registered and claiming Universal Credit is increasing rapidly.

In May 2022 we opened Fresh Start & Coffee Youth Opportunities.  The idea is to support these 16-24 year olds and give them a chance to gain work experience, build their confidence, self esteem & skills in preparation for getting jobs. We have already got two 22 year olds in full time work within 4 months. Our aim is to help more of this age group to join our programme and help them get jobs in their chosen industry. 

Q2:  What specific activities will you deliver with your grant?

A:  Our programme offers a wide range of skills that are transferable in many working industries. 

Here are the activities our youths will be trained in.

• Retail and Customer Service 

Within the Charity Shop they will learn how to greet and serve customers.  They will be trained on the Epos system at the till, similar to most of the Epos systems used in most businesses. They will be encouraged to build their confidence handling customer queries, complaints, sales and returns.  They will be shown how to upsell, ensure the shop is clean, tidy and full of items to sell. They are shown how to price and tag the donations and how to steam products so they are presented well.

• Coffee Shop & Kitchen 

We have been supported by Paddy & Scott’s Coffee and they deliver Barista Training in their Ipswich Academy.  All youths are trained how to use the coffee machine, how to clean it, calibrate the beans and create the designs when serving coffee. They will take orders for the kitchen and learn how to serve in the cafe area, clear away and engage with customers.  They will have the option to take e-learning courses in food hygiene, food safety and first aid which are all accredited and transferable. 

• Basement / Warehouse 

As a Charity we receive a vast quantity of donations and this is taken downstairs to the basement.  We show them how to organise and sort these donations into categories such as books, clothes, bric-à-brac, furniture, dvds and more.  They will learn how to disregard items that we cannot sell and “rag” these ready for collection from a business who can utilise them.  We can provide e-learning course on manual handling and first aid to work in any warehouse.

• Deliveries & Collections

We have our own van and offer to deliver items that are bought within the shop and we collect furniture if anyone would like to donate it.  Our youths get to accompany our driver and they help offloading and collecting.  

All of the above training can be transferred and used when applying for work.  Industries such as Hospitality, Retail, Warehouse, Customer Service, Catering, Delivery roles and more. We help them create a CV and covering letter and give a reference once they are ready to find full time work. Any courses they complete are all accredited and come with a certificate. 

Q3. How do you know this project matters to the community? How will they be involved in the development and delivery of the project?

A:  There are many agencies, charities, departments who all work with NEET youths.  Since we opened our doors in May word quickly spread and we were contacted by many to see if we could work in partnership.  Although these other organisations support these people they do not have any practical ways of supporting their young people, only by offering meetings and trying to help them get motivated or have the desire to get out to work.  Some of the organisations, Lapwing Education, Early support teams at Suffolk County Council have used our facilities to bring youths for voluntary work helping in our warehouse. Lapwing are designing their own Retail Programme to use our facilities, and they host workshops in our Coffee Shop.  Other organisations we work with are the Job Centre, Citizen’s Advice, Insight, Youth Pledge Project and more. 

We work with our young people and carry out 1-1 assessments with them and ask what areas of the Charity do they enjoy most, we encourage them to give their opinions and ideas on how we run the programme and we give them feedback on their progress.