‘ABSOLUTELY fantastic’: the words of CatZero’s Progressions Officer Fiona Daggett when she revealed how 111 certificates of achievement had been gained by members of the charity’s latest CLLD programme.
Fiona was speaking at the group’s celebration event, which was once again held at Hull’s Minerva Masonic Hall – with thanks again to everyone there.
“As I stand here today, the majority of you are already celebrating your plans for the future and are looking forward to adult education and training courses,” said Fiona.
Speaking of the way the participants had handled the course, she expressed her pride in how they were overcoming challenges.
“The hardest thing to do is to sell yourself, but be positive about yourselves because you all have so many skills. This is not the end of your programme but the beginning of your journey,” she added.
The participants had been on the last of the four programmes for the long-term unemployed, which have been supported by CLLD (the Community Led Local Development). Monies from the European Structural and Investment Funds was secured by the city to run the over-arching CLLD programme.
Thanking CLLD for the support, programme delivery officers David Andrews and Sean Bobczuck (Bob), were delighted with everything that had been achieved.
“The one-to-ones is where the work is done. You are all individual and this is when we discover what is holding you back, you can then start to move forward,” said David.
Bob added: “We feel privileged that we are in a position where you can be honest with us, in fact the honesty we get from some people is mind-blowing. And that is important because if you are not open and honest then we cannot help you as much as we want to.”
Speaking for the whole group participant Ella Stimpson, said: “It can be very difficult to talk to someone who doesn’t know the background you are from, but here they try to help you over the barriers you need to jump over to make you see there is something out there for you. Everyone in this room wants to do something and CatZero shows you that you can.”