The charity currently offers training in various skills, including bike and furniture up-cycling, collection and delivery, and customer service from its shop on Southside on the Bridge, and has supported 86 trainees in the past three years alone, with many successfully moving into mainstream employment or joining the GO team permanently.
However, chairman Paul Meader said the charity wanted to identify more skills which were lacking in Guernsey and equip trainees with them, as that would give them new opportunities when looking for employment. He said the skills most needed on-island currently included IT and administration.
‘There is real demand for those, so with the money that’s hopefully raised we will broaden the training we are giving, and there will be more people with a broader range of skills coming into the workforce,’ said Mr Meader.
‘We’re not here to try and grow the Guernsey economy, that’s not our objective, but there are real shortages of skilled personnel in Guernsey in particular areas, so if we can help satisfy that and help alleviate unemployment, skill shortages and the need to bring people into the island when we could have people who are living here in the first place, I think that’s a fantastic benefit.
‘However, it’s not really the purpose.’
He said getting trainees into employment was often ‘life-changing’ for them.
‘You become self-reliant, you become more independent, you have a sense of purpose, it gives you opportunity – all of the things that, to you or me, are just normal.
‘If you’re stuck in a room looking at the four walls every day on benefits and that’s your future, that’s awful, so if we can change a few more lives I think that’s got to be worth doing, and that’s the ask of GO100.’
The initiative is not set to be a one-off for this year, with GO set on making it an annual fundraising event.
‘We want it to become the equivalent of something like ‘30 Bays in 30 Days’ – this is GO’s version of that,’ said Mr Meader.
The idea to incorporate a creative element into the fundraising drive came about due to the tightening of businesses’ purse strings across the island.
‘Corporate fundraising is really hard at the moment because budgets are under pressure, so the idea isn’t that we’re going to go out and just ask each business to give us £1,000.
‘What we’re asking is that people inside businesses do something to support us and have some fun and do some team building, so it’s not just a corporate donation.
‘I think it’s quite different from other corporate fundraising.’
He said many businesses had already signalled an interest in taking part, with one company – Norman Piette – planning a sponsored van wash.
‘We’ve given people lots of ideas, but people can do whatever they want as a team, have some fun and raise some money.’
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