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Wales Tonight: Millions of pounds is being made available to get young people whoíve
left care and young offenders into work and training
Wales Tonight: The Getting Ahead program is been launched in Cardiff and now organizations
are being invited to bid for a share of the cash. Carl Edwards has been to meet one teenager
who benefited from a very similar scheme.
Carl Edwards: Chris Storer loves his job as a cavity wall insulator. But he used to fill
his days skipping school and hanging around the streets of Cardiff. That changed when
the 17 year old who grew up in care got help from homeless charity Llamau. They offered
him training and tips on how to get work.
Chris Storer : I didnít pay much attention in school and I just stop going to school.
So that didnít look good so I didnít, pass many of my GCSEís so that made every worse,
maybe think that I was going to struggle a lot more and I did to get a job. And Oh Iím
glad Iíve got this job now but I hope I ainít going back down to what I was like before.
Carl Edwards: Not much chance of that. Chris is now the poster boy of a new project thatíll
see 3.4 million pounds of funding going to young people leaving care and young offenders.
The Big Lottery Fund has backed the getting ahead program so organizations can offer vulnerable
young people the kind of help many take for granted.
Frances Beecher: Very often they donít have a set of clothes that they could go to a job
interview for. And these are things that mum and dad normally sort out. They donít have
any money in their pocket to catch a bus. They donít know how to get there and when
they get there they are not sure what to do.
Carl Edwards: This scheme wonít completely solve the problem of unemployment but with
more than three million pounds now in the pipeline there will be more cases like Chris.
People who now have work will eventually get their own homes, whoíve got that crucial
first run on the career ladder.
Andy Edwards: If I get out this camera on Chris 14 months ago to him now today and the
difference he was, he is almost filled up now. He is gone from a boy to a man.
Carl Edwards: So at a time when getting work can be hard whatever your background, Chris
sends a positive message to those whoíve had a particularly tough start in life
Chris Storer: Keep trying, donít lose hope and hopefully one day you get a job.
Carl Edwards: And be smiling as much as you. Carl Edwards Wales tonight Cardiff
Wales Tonight: Well done to Chris.