Bytes Project launches appeal for sponsors

A project set up to help jobless young people has mounted a campaign to attract further corporate sponsorship to increase the work of the agency in Northern Ireland.

Partly funded by the government, the Bytes Project currently has 11 centres across Northern Ireland and last year helped thousands of young people with their education, training and skills outreach work.

While core funding for the project is provided by the Department of Education and Learning, the Training and Employment Agency, the European Union and District Councils, the Project’s organisers have refocused on a co-ordinated approach to longer term funding from the private sector.

Project Director of Bytes Patricia Haren said that in the past the Project has attracted specific sponsorship for clearly identified areas in part of their remit for this unique initiative, but that the current appeal represented a change of direction in their fundraising efforts: “We run drop-in centres for young unemployed people aged 16 to 25 and we are trying to get the private sector to support for the project in a number of different ways whereby they are mentors for some of the young people, improving their interview techniques or to help with equipment or supplies.”

Developed in Northern Ireland, the Bytes Project offers Information and Communication Technology facilities in an informal, but controlled environment, to unemployed young people aged 16-25 in some of the most socially disadvantaged areas of Northern Ireland.

The young people are encouraged to accelerate their own personal development and to achieve their full potential and progress to further education, purposeful training or the world of work.

Currently 11 projects are located in Belfast and Derry, but the trustees of Bytes are keen to expand the project to other locations throughout Northern Ireland. (SP)