Starlink Central - giving everyone a chance to shine

Starlink Central is a project that aims to help people who, for a variety of reasons, are experiencing difficulty in finding a job.

These people may have, or have had, drug and alcohol problems, mental health problems, they may have a disability or a lack of literacy and numeracy skills, or they may be ex-offenders or single parents.

Whatever their circumstances, Starlink offers each beneficiary one-to-one mentoring and support to help them gain the skills necessary to get a job or to progress to further education or training.

Each beneficiary meets with their own caseworker, who helps them produce an action plan of the help they need, whether that be training with literacy, numeracy or computer skills, jobsearch training or simply confidence-building assistance. There's no set time that each beneficiary will spend on the programme, they can take as long as they need.

Starlink is a partnership between three organisations, each working with socially excluded people in the City. Derby CVS is responsible for managing the project, while Faith, Hope and Enterprise and Austin Community Enterprise provide the mentoring support. They provide a wide range of activities to Starlink clients, including:

• welfare rights advice and housing advice;
• debt counselling;
• work search skills (OCN accredited), advice on compiling a CV and employment preparation (also OCN accredited);
• work experience;
• IT courses including IT Beginners, CLAIT, IBT2 and Internet training;
• word processing; and
• childcare facilities and out of school clubs.

The project is an LSC co-financed project with ESF funding and will run until December 2004. By then, we aim to have worked with 200 beneficiaries, 150 of whom will be from the Objective 2 wards of the City - Derwent, Babington, Abbey, Osmaston and Litchurch - and another 50 from outside these wards.

( If you'd like to know more about Starlink, or know someone who might benefit from getting involved, please contact Margaret Thompson at CVS on 01332 227709 or email mthompson@cvsderby.co.uk