Community Jobs Scotland celebrates landmark moment
Community Jobs Scotland (CJS) is celebrating having placed 7,500 unemployed and vulnerable young people into paid job training opportunities.
Communities secretary Angela Constance MSP presented Ryan Brown – the landmark employee – with a certificate to mark the occasion at an Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations parliamentary reception held on Tuesday.
Ryan (20) is employed as a training development worker with the charity Move On.
Receiving his certificate, he openly told the story of his troubled upbringing which saw him raised in an environment of domestic violence, drug abuse and tragedy through the death of his baby brother, step-father and cousin.
After moving out of home and into hostels at the age of 15 and 16, Ryan admitted to rebelling against authority and ended up spending time in prison on more than one occasion.
But after making a conscious decision to turn his life around, CJS has helped him create a better future for himself through finding him his position at Move On.
“I made a choice to make a change and chose a different lifestyle,” he told an audience of 150 people connected with Scotland third sector at the parliament event.
“I started volunteering with Move On and used the help that was offered to me.
“I have now secured my own tenancy for the first time and have a stable relationship with my girlfriend.
“I have a really bright future and I am really thankful that I am here to be able to share a short introduction about myself.”
Community Jobs Scotland is an employability programme delivered by SCVO in partnership with the Scottish Government and was created in 2011.
It offers those aged 16-29 up to 12 months of job training with a third sector employer for at least 25 hours per week full time.
Part time opportunities are available lasting up to 18 months for 16 hours per week for those with a disability or long term health condition.
Paid at least the national minimum wage, and often the Scottish living wage, opportunities are available for young people in all 32 local authorities in Scotland.
Commenting on Community Jobs Scotland’s landmark achievement, Shulah Allan, SCVO convener, said: “I would like to thank the Scottish Government for their continued support and to thank the 650 plus employers in our sector who make the whole thing possible.”
To read more of Ryan’s story read this week’s TFN Real Lives column.
