£2.4m investment to boost employment skills in Barnsley revealed

Government funding from the nationwide community renewal fund will be spent on a community boost project in the central ward, which includes Dodworth, Kingstone, Stairfoot and Worsbrough.

The scheme will focus on investing in skills, businesses, community, and supporting people into employment, and will run until June 2022.

Councillor Jenny Platts, cabinet spokesperson for adults and communities told today’s cabinet meeting that the programme has been established in ‘recognition of a number of challenges faced by Barnsley residents, including low levels of engagement and participation in community life, increasingly isolated and disenfranchised communities, significant deprivation challenges…… well being and mental health challenges’.

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Coun Platts added that the community fund seeks to ‘understand and respond to these key challenges’.