Upskilling & Upcyc­ling Pro­ject

As well assist­ing in the relief of pover­ty, Care Zone is striv­ing to develop a mod­el of sup­port­ing fam­il­ies to pos­it­ively move out of pover­ty. To this end, Care Zone runs a prac­tic­al skills work­shop that aims to reduce the num­ber of vul­ner­able people claim­ing out of work bene­fits. The work­shop offers a small, sup­port­ive, nur­tur­ing, struc­tured envir­on­ment where people can develop prac­tic­al skills but also increase their self-esteem and self-con­fid­ence. Care Zone works with key agen­cies such as the Job Centre, the City Col­lege Peter­bor­ough, Accent group Hous­ing, Cross Keys Homes and YMCA to sup­port people with com­plex sup­port needs into work or move closer to the labour mar­ket through provid­ing prac­tic­al employ­ab­il­ity skills train­ing, mean­ing­ful work exper­i­ence and volun­teer­ing oppor­tun­it­ies.

Care Zone part­ners with IKEA who donate unwanted mater­i­als to the work­shop that would oth­er­wise go to land­fill. These mater­i­als are recycled or reused in the work­shop to cre­ate fur­niture that are then given to fam­il­ies.

The work­shop also offers upcyc­ling courses that teaches people how to repur­pose old unwanted pieces of fur­niture donated by the pub­lic and these fur­niture are then sold through a social enter­prise.

How is the project related to the Circular Economy?