MEDIA RELEASE

Friday 25 June

Community Max Expansion Welcomed – More is Needed

“The further expansion of the Community Max programme for four areas of high unemployment is a good start to helping these communities respond. However, there are many neighbourhoods and communities that have high levels of unemployment”, said Ruby Duncan Acting President of the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services (NZCCSS). “Providing more Community Max programmes in all of these neighbourhoods would make a real difference for young unemployed people and their families”.

The Government recently announced it is investing a further $17.4 million in Community Max programmes for Northland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and the East Coast. This will provide for an addition 1,500 Community Max placements on top of the 3,000 places that were announced last August as part of the Youth Opportunities Package'.

“In the recently released fifth quarterly Vulnerability Report we noted the huge number of young Maori and young Pacific people that were unemployed and not involved in training or education. The expansion of the Community Max scheme into areas of high Maori youth unemployment will help”, says Trevor McGlinchey, NZCCSS Executive Officer. “Our members are working in smaller communities where the unemployment rates are as high as those in the four areas where this programme is being expanded. We would like to see a greater increase in places overall so that these communities have the opportunity to benefit from the youth employment and the community work that is achieved through Community Max programmes”.

“The current 3,000 Community Max places are oversubscribed and communities struggle to keep their current programmes in place let alone get new programmes established due to this high demand”, said McGlinchey. “We note the business community employment subsidy programme, Job Ops, was increased from 6,000 to 12,000 in the last Budget, and see this as setting a benchmark for Government support. Our members would like to see this benchmark of support being achieved in community employment initiatives”.

“We congratulate Ministers Turia and Bennett in achieving the extra 1,500 Community Max placements and urge them to continue to push for more places so that local communities can respond to their young peoples’ need for engagement in work and training”, said Mrs Duncan.

ENDS

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