A project designed to get people out of unemployment and back into work has led to one young woman launching her own business.

Thanks to almost £100,000 in grant funding, the Skills 4 You project in Cleator Moor has boosted confidence and given hundreds of people skills to make positive changes and get them back into employment.

One such person is Lisa from Cleator. She lost her job and was feeling low. She found the Skills 4 You project, which teaches woodcraft and upcycling to help people who have a chronic lack of confidence, caused by mental or physical health challenges.

When Lisa joined the craft group, she was feeling anxious, having regular panic attacks and suffering from depression. But, determined to try lots of craft techniques, she quickly got the hang of decoupage and painting, so much so that in 2018, she started her own business upcycling and re-purposing old furniture and mirrors.

Lisa said: “The course was a major influence; it gave me the inspiration and confidence to start my own business after a terrible time in my life”.

The future now looks bright for Lisa. She is enjoying her new adventure, learning new skills as she develops her business and selling her unique furniture through social media. She explained: “It’s a fantastic feeling to take a piece of furniture that nobody wants anymore and turn it into a centre piece that will be cherished by its new owner.”

Christina Timney, Grants and Information Officer at Home to Work, said: “We are so pleased that we were able to be part of Lisa’s journey through the rough times to where she is now.”

Lisa’s story is a familiar one, and although Lisa has an array of qualifications and many years of experience behind her, West Cumbria has high levels of unemployment, where a shocking one in four adults living in Copeland have no qualifications.

Trying to address this issue is the Skills 4 You project, run by social enterprise, Home to Work, by providing training opportunities to local residents. The project was launched in 2014 and has been supported by Cumbria Community Foundation for the last four years, to offer practical skills, mainly to 16 – 24 year olds, and a range of short courses to help people get on to mainstream accredited courses.

The eight-week training offers the opportunity to learn woodworking and crafting in an on-site workshop. Alongside the practical training, the course offers mentoring, support in writing a CV and how to perform in a job interview. It also looks at the social skills in life which can support mental health and wellbeing.

The activities on offer include restoring furniture, recycling salvaged timber to make garden furniture, planters or picnic tables, and creating simple wooden items like small toys, bird boxes, bird tables and sandpits.

The training course also helped Joe from Whitehaven. He left school at 16 with six GCSEs and had numerous jobs over the years. However, when he became unemployed, he started at Skills 4 You as by then, he had 4 children and wanted to be able to support his family.

Joe competed the Skills 4 You programme and went on to work in grounds maintenance. He said: “The Skills 4 You programme gave me the confidence and motivation that I needed to tackle the labour market. I was approached by Home to Work to apply for an apprentice position working with the Whitehaven Lengthsman scheme. I was delighted to be offered the job, working towards an NVQ in amenity horticulture.”

Christina continues: “We are so proud of what our clients and the project has achieved. Our team has formed relationships with local people, many of whom lacked confidence, were in poor physical and mental health, and had no opportunity to learn new skills, as well as employers who advertise vacancies with us.”

Home to work was first supported by the Foundation in 2007. £998 from the Sellafield Site Fund replaced old garden equipment for the Works 4 You project, developed to generate income by providing grounds maintenance services and employment to the local community. The garden scheme had been running for 6 years and the grant contributed to 2 lawnmowers and 2 strimmer’s to enable the charity to deliver garden services to the elderly and deprived communities of Cleator Moor, Frizington and Workington.

Described by one member as “The Great Escape”, Caldbeck’s heart-warming community project “Men in Sheds” provides a perfect social haven for men to share their love of woodwork and a bit of a ‘craic’.

Men in Sheds is exactly as it sounds, a shed known as the Old Joiners Workshop where men can seek friendship and pursue their practical interests. It’s a larger version of an ideal garden shed, located by the very beautiful, but secluded, Caldbeck Pond. It’s accessed by residents from the local area, often with the help of volunteers due to their age and isolation. Stepping inside you will discover a friendly, safe and inclusive environment where members share tools and resources to work on projects of their own choice at their own pace.

One member Bert, who is 90, and would normally be very isolated and alone, said: “I live for Tuesdays and Thursdays.” The atmosphere is welcoming and warm as the sun shines through the dusty windows and the smell of bacon butties and warm wood fills the air. This is the place to be if you want to enjoy the companionship of likeminded and caring friends. An absolute need in this area for people like Bert, where issues including fuel poverty, and lack of facilities, services and transport affect them.

The project meets twice a week and has more than 30 regular attendees. It not only provides respite for carers but a refuge for older men – some with early onset dementia. They also repair notice boards, vintage motorbikes and playgrounds. Their latest activity is making benches for Cumbria Wildlife Trust.

The vast number of projects, managed by Northern Fells Group, has received almost £200,000 in grants administered by Cumbria Community Foundation since 2004.

Libby Graham, Fundraising Coordinator, said: “The support offered by Cumbria Community Foundation and the grant aid we have received over the last 13 years, has been invaluable to the organisation and the communities of the seven parishes we serve. It has enabled the Northern Fells Group to pilot new initiatives, to expand our services and has provided the sustained continuity required to build and support our volunteer base, to ensure that our services are of the highest quality and to help us to continue to meet the changing needs of our users.”

The Men is Sheds project continues to go from strength to strength. The Shed Master, Ken Graham and volunteers are self-admitted ’a bunch of big kids in old bodies.’ The members also support their local pub and meet every week with family members to have tea and a catch up.

Northern Fells Group is a community owned and volunteer led charity. Covering 200 square miles of upland terrain where 4,000 residents live, work and play who can also be vulnerable, isolated and excluded from vital services.

To respond to needs of the local community, the charity developed a range of services in addition to Men in Sheds, including a community minibus, a Village Agent service, a Lend a Hand scheme, benefits awareness advice and holiday play schemes, along with social and recreational activities.

Over its time the group has helped many people. One gentleman has lived in the village since he retired from farming. Over the last few years, he suffered from high levels of anxiety, which meant that phone calls and any letters or bills caused a great problem. Small things easily overwhelmed him and he lost confidence in himself. The group provided social activities for him to attend on a regular basis such as Men in Sheds, where he was a regular for many years until going into a care home. He also attended lunch groups and other social activities run by the NFG. The Village Agent assisted him with ordering household aids and with sorting and filing bills and contacting utility providers. He used the minibus regularly when he gave up driving. He also used the Lend a Hand service to fit bathroom aids for safety.

Libby continues: “Residents face day-to-day issues like poor or no public transport, poor health and loneliness, and low incomes stretched by rising fuel prices. New people to the area and long term residents often don’t have family support networks.

“The grants mean that our services can continue to provide a lifeline for older, disabled and vulnerable people and are greatly valued by the wider community.”