ParentsNext is a pre-employment program designed to help parents of small children into training and education or paid work. Since 2016, the program has been running in 10 pilot locations across the country and successfully helped thousands of parents prepare for work.
As part of the pilot program, SYC had run two very successful sites in the City of Playford in South Australia and in the City of Hume in Victoria. The organisation has retained those two pilot locations and has now also won an additional eight locations to create a total of 10 sites to be run by SYC.
The announcement was made last week by the Federal Minister for Jobs and Small Business, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash.
SYC CEO Paul Edginton welcome the announcement saying it marked a major expansion of the organisation’s work and increased its national footprint significantly, including opening its first ever site in Logan in south-east Queensland.
"We’ve seen first-hand just how successful this program can be in supporting parents of young children to get into work," he said.
"We know that many parents of young children want to be in the workforce, but sometimes they struggle to get into – or return to – paid employment and feel they are often overlooked by some employers."
"There are often many challenges faced by parents when combining the important job of raising a family while preparing to return to work," he said.
ParentsNext looks to:
- target early intervention assistance for parents at risk of long-term welfare dependency
- help parents identify and reach their education and employment goals through participation in activities, and
- connect parents to local services that can help them to prepare for employment.
According to Mr Edginton, SYC will be working with more than 3,000 parents, across 10 locations in South Australia, Victoria and Queensland.
"We’re delighted that winning this contract serves two significant purposes. Firstly we are genuinely delighted that we now have the opportunity to support more parents into paid employment and all the benefits that brings," he said.
Celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2018, SYC has grown from an initial team of just three employees in Adelaide, to a team of more than 550 staff across Australia and an annual turnover of more than $70 million.
"For six decades, our core principle at SYC has always been the alleviation of poverty and distress," said Mr Edginton.
"Over the years we have continued to build on the delivery of a broad range of support services by successfully developing market leading programs and winning contracts that have enabled us to continually grow our reach and our impact."
The first stream of the new ParentsNext program will be rolled out to the most disadvantaged parents in all 51 employment regions identified by the Australian Government across the country.
The second stream will deliver a more intensive ParentsNext program in the existing 10 pilot locations and a further 20 locations where there is a high proportion of Parenting Payment recipients who are Indigenous.
The program will commence July 1, 2018.
MEDIA CONTACT: McCo Group – Leigh McClusky 0411 711 780; [email protected]
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