Genesis Sir Gâr

	Genesis Team
	Jo-Anne Gravell-Davies	Temporary Genesis Coordinator, Tel: 01554 821589
	Liz Reeves-Davies	Genesis Advisor, Tel: 07919 592672
	Fleur John	Genesis Finance/Admin Officer, Tel: 01554 821589
	Support to Individuals Mobile Crèche Childcare Providers Genesis Sir Gâr eligibility criteria

Support to Individuals

Genesis Sir Gâr is part of the national Genesis Wales project that works alongside adults to help them explore long forgotten hopes and aspirations and provide guidance and support to help them achieve their hopes and a brighter future.

The aim of the project is to remove barriers that adults and in particular parents face when returning to work or training.

The key objectives of the project are:

• To improve the economic activity of individuals
• To contribute to the lifelong learning agenda and
• To break the cycles of poverty and disadvantage

Genesis offers the support of an advisor who will work with an individual to create a package of support that is right for them. This may include helping the individual:

• To raise their confidence and self-esteem through:
  • Encouraging the individual to take part in community activities and informal learning
• To find the right training course either formal or informal
• To improve their pre-employment skills in particular:
  • writing application forms
  • interview skills
• With financial support to remove barriers including:
  • Childcare
  • Transport
  • Course fees

The Genesis Work Advisor can also access £250 of further funding through the Job Centre.

Genesis Sir Gâr works primarily with parents helping them to overcome the barriers they face when wanting to learn new skills or return to work. Childcare can be a huge barrier to women, it is often expensive and difficult to find. Through working closely with parents most of whom are women Genesis Sir Gâr offers financial assistance and other support to enable access to courses and work opportunities.

Mobile Crèche

Genesis and Carmarthenshire Youth and Children’s Association jointly operate a mobile crèche service operating around the county. The mobile crèche is used mainly to support training courses run by other community organisations/projects.

These organisations/projects include:

• Carmarthenshire Learning Network (CLN)
• Clubiau Plant Cymru Kids Clubs (CPCKC)
• FACT
• Menter Bro Dinefwr
• Menter Cwm Gwendraeth
• Plant Dewi
• Sure Start Mentoring Team
• Twf
• Ty Ni and Ty Hapus Family Centres

The mobile crèche team provide crèche facilities for up to 2 hours per session in a room close to the training venue. This enables parents many of whom have never left their child in childcare before to have the security of knowing that their child is not far away. It also overcomes the barriers to learning of both childcare and transport.

The mobile crèche service aims to provide bilingual, flexible, qualify childcare in a variety of settings and spread geographically across the county to those benefiting from training opportunities.




Childcare providers

The aim of the project is to remove barriers that adults and in particular parents face when returning to work or training, the availability and accessibility of childcare is often a major barrier, therefore is Genesis Sir Gâr is committed to working towards ensuring the availability of childcare to those who need it.

Genesis seeks to do this through Promotion of Childcare as a career:

• supporting individuals undertaking training in childcare;
• running ‘Up 2 You’ introduction to childcare courses helping individuals decide on the career avenue for them. The next course will run on 8th and 15th January at Llwynhendy Children’s Centre;
• supporting new providers through the provision of small grants for equipment essential to CSSIW registration.

Genesis Wales Chilcare Assistance
Eligibility Criteria:

Genesis will fund childcare at the following rates, subject to no other source of funding being available and subject to sufficient finances being available.

All applicants must be over the age of 16 and reside within Carmarthenshire.

• Individuals entering new training and have a joint household income less than £25,000 may be eligible for a maximum of £135 per week full time (per child) assistance towards registered childcare costs.
• Individuals entering new employment with an anticipated joint household income of less than £25,000 and whom are NOT eligible for WFTC Child Care assistance may also be eligible for above childcare costs.
• Individuals entering training/employment with a joint household income of more than £25,000 may be eligible for a contribution towards childcare costs only in special circumstances.
• Individuals entering training who are eligible for HE or FE Childcare Awards from the college or LEA will NOT be eligible for Genesis support.
• Individuals receiving a childcare award from Working Family Tax Credit will NOT be eligible. (However in special circumstances, approval may be issued for advance childcare fees to be paid, in anticipation of WFTC payments being received – which will be required to be refunded to the Genesis project).
• Any element of childcare cost which exceeds £135 per week full time, per child, will not be eligible for Genesis assistance.

Note:

Genesis will NOT fund individuals using unregistered childminders or unregistered childcare settings. However, consideration may be given for the payment of mobile crèche workers providing sessional care, less than 2 hours, in unregistered settings. The assessment panel reserve the right to use their own discretion to deal with individual cases.

For more information about Genesis support in your area, and to establish eligibility criteria, please contact:

Jo-Anne Gravell-Davies on 01554 775126 ext. 208, or email:
jgravell-davies@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

© August 2008