BRIDPORT: Charlotte perfect for BLAST

“It was a lovely surprise,” admitted BLAST chair, Arthur Woodgate.

“We had applications coming in from Dorset, Devon and Somerset, all offering something worth thinking about.”

Of the four candidates interviewed for the innovative “Aspire” project, the team feel they have made the perfect choice in Charlotte Storey.

“Aspire is targeting those young people who have very little in their lives,” explained Mr Woodgate.

“My experience of working with such young people in Lewisham, Southwark and here in West Dorset, has shown me that the right sort of support, given at the right time, can lead to some quite astonishing results.

“Depending on what you think miracles are, miracles can happen.”

Just five weeks into a 20 week pilot, Charlotte has already succeeded in working with a number of young people, aged 16 to 22, identifying the sort of training courses and work experience opportunities that they have asked for.

“I think it’s no exaggeration to say that, within a very short space of time, Charlotte has begun to change the lives of some of the young people she has met,” commented BLAST management team member, Ros Kayes.

“She is intelligent, inspirational, multi-talented, and able to quickly gain the trust and affection of young people – that’s what we saw when we interviewed her, and that’s why we appointed her.

“I guess an indication of the impact she’s made is that some young people are asking what will happen to Charlotte after the 20 weeks – they’ve even offered to write a funding bid to raise money to keep her. A pretty clear message.”

The young people have also made something of an impact on Charlotte.

“There are so many valuable, skilled and reliable young people in this area who want to work hard and get on in life,” she said.

“They are simply hoping that someone will give them a chance – we are appealing to local employers to do just that.”

Funding for the Aspire pilot project has so far come from the West Dorset Community Fund and the West Dorset Partnership.

The BLAST management team gratefully acknowledges the support being given by various partner organisations, including Connexions, the Out of School Service, Yeovil College, YOU Trust, and national training providers Nacro, BLAST’s partners in creating West Dorset’s first Skills Training Centre.

For the Aspire and other BLAST-related projects you can contact Arthur Woodgate on 01308 423767.

Arthur Woodgate found advertising in the View From the perfect answer to his problem.

He said: “The area of coverage from the View From papers gave us a much wider audience, and not only did we have a tremendous amount of applicants, there were a lot with very high standard.”

PICTURE: Aspire co-ordinator Charlotte Storey (second left) with BLAST management team members (from left) Arthur Woodgate, Ros Kayes and  Jean Wicks

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