Celebrating a Year of Good Work Camden

Words by Tor Marie, Apprentice Project Support Officer at the London Borough of Camden

This May, we are celebrating the first anniversary of Good Work Camden, our service to help people find good quality work that enables them to live secure, sustainable and happy lives.

Over the last year, we’ve supported 400 people through our Job Hub. 98 of these have gained successful employment, 31 have been supported in starting their own business and 52 have gone into education or training. Many more have developed personal action plans, been referred to complementary services and received expert employment advice from our friendly, relational team.

We’ve set up two neighbourhood Job Hubs in Regent’s Park and Gospel Oak, with a third on the way in Kilburn, but we serve residents across the whole borough. Our advisors have been hard at work getting residents into employment, education, training or entrepreneurship and helping them to access the support they need in other areas of their lives, like finance, housing and mental health.

This additional, holistic support has been made possible by working very closely with already well-established internal services and voluntary and community sector partners through our Employment and Skills Network. The network works collaboratively to share valuable information and resources that can improve how we best support residents into good work.

To complement our employment support offer we have created a community grant fund to help residents access the equipment and education they need to get into good work.

Moreover, we’ve recently launched our new partnership with Google to offer 500 Camden residents the opportunity to complete professional level training in high growth IT fields for free. The Google Career Certificate programme is brand new in the UK and Camden is the first local authority that Google is working with. So far, more than 150 residents have registered to take part, and 100 have started engaging with the online courses.

What’s next for Good Work Camden?

We’re proud of what the team has achieved, and even more proud of the residents that are succeeding in achieving the goals that matter to them. But there is so much more we need to do. This year, alongside the creation of our Kilburn Job Hub, we will also be developing a Health and Disability Hub which will specialise in supporting those with additional needs to find and sustain work that is right for them. We have also commissioned the Design Council, in collaboration with the Winch and the Roundhouse, to work with youth employment organisations and young people to redesign our youth employment offer.

We will continue to facilitate online peer support sessions, also known as Neighbourhood Cafés, which provide the opportunity for residents to connect with other local people and have an open discussion on different employability themes. Plus, we are most excited about returning to our communities to provide bespoke and locally relevant support on the doorstep of residents that need it most.

If you would like to find out more about our service or if you work with a resident who would benefit from working with our team you can contact us via goodwork@camden.gov.uk or complete a very simple registration form at camden.gov.uk/employment-support