Beneficiaries - People who are looking to create a pathway out of poverty by securing employment or long-term education opportunities.
Services - We provide individual travel solutions for people who have been offered employment or a long-term education but find a lack of transport a barrier to accepting it. We do this simply by providing moped hire or bicycle allocation to remove the barrier. We offer 6-months moped hire where the service-user contribute £30 per week and pays for the fuel or battery electricity and all other costs including moped insurance, CBT (Compulsory Basic Training), PPE (helmet, jacket, gloves and hi-viz vest), MOT/servicing and locks are covered by the scheme. The bicycle scheme "Recycle to Work" has a one-off service-user contribution of £50 and they receive a reconditioned bicycle, helmet, locks, lights and puncture repair kit the cost of which covered by the scheme. Criteria for both schemes is that the service-user lives in County Durham, has a provisional/full driving license (moped only), has somewhere safe to store the vehicle, has had confirmation that their journey cannot be undertaken by other transport means and has a confirmed offer of employment or long-term training.
Impact - 90% of service-users surveyed after they left the scheme were still in employment 6 months later, 90% of people in County Durham travel outside of their local districts to get to work, 27% of all County Durham households do not have access to a vehicle (in many wards this is as high as 40%), for every £1 spent on supporting the programme a beneficial return of £7.81 is realised and nationally every £1 spent on getting somebody into work returns £16 to the economy. Over 300 County Durham residents have been helped into employment by the scheme since 2016 of which 42% were over the age of 25 and 16% were female. On of our service-users remarked "“Fantastic service, over the moon with everything that was done. If it wasn’t for this scheme, I would be jobless and probably homeless. Thank you so much. It means a lot.” Currently, we have a waiting list of over 20 applications for the moped scheme and 5 for the bicycle scheme.
We manage and maintain a 40 vehicle fleet of mopeds and provide access to 40 bicycles to help people for whom a lack of transport is a barrier to securing work of education is a barrier to creating a pathway out of poverty.
We ensure that all applications are assessed equally and fairly in line with our policies and procedures, and manage our relationship with ACE Motorcycles Ltd to provide a legal, roadworthy and well-maintained fleet.
We keep channels of communication open and cordial with our referral agencies including recruitment/employment agencies and the DWP, and market our services effectively through targeted Facebook advertising, attending job-fairs and employment events and utilising various networks existing in the VCS.
We continually seek funding support and have secured revenue and capital support from the following in 2022; Durham County Council, Believe Housing, Livin Housing, Karbon Homes, Arnold Clark Community Fund, Peoples Postcode Lotter, Barbour Foundation, County Durham Community Foundation and fleet sponsorship through Pulman Group.
We have a small, but efficient and capable staff team consisting of a full-time Project Manager, part-time Project Office and a part-time Finance Officer. All of which are supported by a very experienced Management Committee.