NFPs Get US$600,000 to Fight Youth Unemployment
14 September 2015 at 10:15 am
Four Australian Not for Profits have pocketed more than $840,000 to tackle youth unemployment.
The Citi Foundation has announced that it will launch two programs this month to address youth unemployment in Australia, beginning with communities in Frankston in Victoria and Western Sydney.
A total of US$600,000 is being invested in four programs to create and test new means of connecting disadvantaged young people with jobs and then build sustainable programs which can be rolled out across the country.
On Friday the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Citi launched Creating Futures for Youth, a 12 month program to support 140 young people transition from the classroom to employment in Frankston, Victoria.
Today, the School for Social Entrepreneurs will open registrations for its first ever youth-based program, SSE & Citi Youth LaunchPad, created for young people in Western Sydney keen to explore social entrepreneurship as a career.
The other programs to be funded in 2015 will be an investment in Global Sisters, a new Not for Profit organisation that will work with young people in Warwick Farm and Miller, NSW to set up micro businesses, and the continuation of a long term partnership with the Skilling Australia Foundation.
Country Officer for Citi in Australia, Stephen Roberts, said this was the first year the Citi Foundation in Australia had focused solely on youth unemployment.
“Youth unemployment in Australia is one of our country’s most pressing problems, with unemployment rates three times higher than the national rate, and in some areas even higher,” Roberts said.
“The Citi Foundation recognises that to promote progress in communities we need to invest in young people, which is why we are pleased to be able to support these innovative programs.”
The focus on youth unemployment follows an initiative established in 2014 by the Citi Foundation in the United States called Pathways to Progress.
The program has been created to improve career readiness for low-income urban youth. Through a combination of education, vocational skills training or entrepreneurship preparation, young people gain competitive skills as well as access to financial and other resources to send them on the path to social and economic success.
In its first year, nearly 25,000 young people across 10 cities in the United States were supported by Pathways to Progress.
