Lottery money will help High Peak charity project to grow

The money is to be used to employ a development manager from April 2020.

The Zink Project was set up in 2015 and runs High Peak Foodbank. It was later that year that Zink started to support foodbank users to get work.

So far nearly 300 long term unemployed people in the High Peak have got jobs through one of Zink’s five employment programmes. Zink Advice have been busy too, helping 200 people last year to resolve issues that caused them to need to use a foodbank.

Paul Bohan, CEO at Zink, said: “Zink has grown rapidly in the last few years. There are now eight staff and more than 50 volunteers. This grant is not for existing services but for Zink to employ someone to help us manage the future development of Zink.

“It means we can plan better, expand services and look at new innovative ways of supporting people. Existing services, like High Peak Foodbank cannot be funded by this grant so we still need to raise money for them.”

In 2016 Zink was the first UK foodbank to offer qualifications to help people get work and get out of poverty. Zink’s microjob programme was evaluated with the support of Sheffield University and found to be the first of its kind in the world. Microjobs are small amounts of paid work, they enable people who were long term unemployed with addiction issues to achieve recovery and move into mainstream work.

And in 2017 recognising the shortage of High Peak labourers with site safety certificates, Zink got funding for Chesterfield College to run four courses in Buxton and Gamesley with 34 people achieving the standard and now working on local building sites.

Zink also run Buxton Community Wellbeing Café on the first and third Friday of the month at 5.30pm at Buxton United Reformed Church.

There are two open evenings to find out more about the job on February 7, at 6.30pm and February 10, at 6pm at Buxton United Reformed Church.

To enable The Zink Project to continue to support local families and individuals you can donate online at www.highpeakfoodbank.co.uk.