NLDC supports local voluntary and community sector organisations to develop their capacity to deliver learning opportunities for residents of disadvantaged communities. The 2009/10 contract has now finished and we are receiving feedback from our delivery partners about how successful it was.

One of our members who delivered part of the contract is Embrace, a community organisation which specialises in providing different types of personal development courses for individuals in the community in order to build skills and confidence.  They have a range of courses available for different age groups and all courses are fun, interactive and tailored to meet specific needs of learners.

The NLDC funding helped them to help learners to access accredited courses, improve their job search skills, provide IAG support, achieve Level 1 qualifications and meet other learners in the same situations as them.

One of the people they supported was Dwayne, an ex-offender who came to one of the NLDC funded courses. The course was recommended to him by a friend.  Initially he didn’t want to take part because he had been told by other agencies that he wouldn’t find work because of his criminal record.  However, as the first day went on, Dwayne found the activities and discussions really useful and interesting and by the end of the day, he had started supporting other learners in the group with their portfolios.  Embrace provided Dwayne with some useful information, updated his CV and put him through a filmed mock interview. A few days later he had found work as a result of his new found confidence.

Dwayne found the course really useful and has now been promoted to supervisor level at the same company.  He said, "The course at Embrace was really good for me because it was different from any other course I'd been on.  The tutors were really friendly and easy going and really understood my problems.  They helped me to put together an action plan and kept me focussed which I really appreciate.  I still go to them for help with different things - they're more like friends now!"

Embrace's Nisha Kaunda commented, "Dwayne has done very well for himself.  The course only helped to make him understand what skills he already possesses and how he can use these in any aspect of his life.  We really do wish him the best for the future.  The funding from NLDC has allowed us to support so many people like Dwayne, it's brilliant to see them develop over such a short space of time.  It's been great to be able to create a programme which is interactive and fun for us to deliver as trainers and works every single time.  With the help of the funding and Enable, we've worked with hundreds of people in the community and provided support in different ways from accredited courses to feedback on mock interviews to job search and action planning to providing people with references for jobs.  It's been amazing, and the greatest part is that referrals for our courses has never slowed down, in fact, we've been the busiest we've ever been this year".

For more details about Embrace in the Community email embrace001@yahoo.co.uk or call 0115 9624530.