When it launched, the trust comprised 21 pilot projects. Now it has a bewildering number of strings to its bow, including personal development projects, programmes in schools and programmes for young offenders. "It has evolved," says chief executive Martina Milburn. "When it was set up there was a situation of very high unemployment in the UK. We were dealing with a lot of young people who were much better educated than those we deal with now, but who still couldn't get jobs. It was unheard of to give a young person a business loan."
Now, she says, the employment situation is better for the majority; graduate loans to help young people get started in work are commonplace. The trust is now concentrating on the hardest to reach. "Over the next two or three years we will be looking at how we can better focus on young offenders," she explains. "We haven't been great at tackling rural deprivation either, but now we are getting better at identifying individual pockets."
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