Interested parties please contact GRT – this is a new work front yet to be fully activated and awaiting local champions.

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Purpose 

To empower families to have access to life’s basics, independence and purpose through opportunity to access employment.

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Objectives

• Accessible employment for families suited to skills levels and experience

• Accommodating workplaces with family friendly culture and tailored working hours and arrangements to support parents and carers and their responsibilities

• Training and workplace entry programs tailored to parents and carers and their responsibilities

• Access to other participation opportunities that continue to engage parents and carers while not employed to maintain skills, connection, and confidence and maintain or grow experience in readiness for later work opportunities

• Opportunities for parents to contribute to improving their family circumstances and opportunities (eg SPUR Hardship Partners to reduce debts and financial risks).

 

Community Identified Need

Families report increasing challenges coping with the cost of living, including accessing life’s basics such as housing due to rental stress.

 

This focus area assumes that by increasing flexible and accessible access to employment, more parents will have the choice to work, without feeling any detriment to their parental responsibilities, and will be more enabled to independently support their family, while maintaining connection, a sense of purpose and self-efficacy.

 

GRT's community-identified priority areas include ‘Our families have access to Employment’.  The community-designed Gladstone Region Wellbeing Action Plan includes a strategy focus on employment pathways for parents, including objectives to:

• Increase accessible and effective training and employment pathways for parents

• Increase early supports to enable eligibility for training and employment and enable retention.

 

Stakeholders

• SPER Hardship Partners and those interested in becoming SPUR Hardship Partners

• Queensland Government

• The Local Level Alliance - Gladstone (2022-23)

 

Measures (click on linked measure to see current data)

↑ % participation (work, study or training)

↓ % unemployment

↓ # Jobseeker welfare recipients

↓ # food provisions required

↑ #, % of families where one parent is employed full-time
↓ % families earning less than $650 per week
↓ % children in low-income welfare dependent families

↓ # financial assistance required

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Methodology 

• Map training pathways

• Existing training pathways and new pathways explored for design of training opportunities

• Redesign of job structures

• Work readiness development of capacity and confidence.

 

Activity to Date 

• Meeting with local job providers

• Data analysis of SPER penalties for the Gladstone Region

• Assessment of opportunity to expand SPUR debt reduction opportunities

• Review of SPER Hardship Partnership eligibility and application process.

 

Resources

• SPER Hardship Partnership

 

Next Actions

Community to express interest in progressing this focus area - Please contact GRT on:

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E:            admin@gladstoneregiontogether.org.au

P:            07 4970 7382

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