C-Care: Covid Channel Area Response Exchange

Overview

Plymouth City Council is delivering a unique package of Covid-19 recovery support for local businesses and people, building on the Skills Launchpad and the Plymouth Charter, through an ambitious two-year project.

The C-Care (Covid Channel Area Response Exchange) initiative, funded by the Interreg France (Channel) England (FCE) programme, is set to reach businesses and people hit hardest by the pandemic.

Drawing on a range of expertise from local government, enterprise and tourism in the UK and France, the project will support people at risk of exclusion from the labour market and businesses in their economic recovery.

Background

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was experienced not just with regards to public health but has created major economic shock which resulted in economic volatility making significant repercussions on small businesses and the local community across Plymouth.

It is hoped that the insights and evidence gathered from both sides of the Channel will feed into local plans for Plymouth, to aid recovery and resilience planning, and to ensure measures are in place to support businesses and people adapt to future pandemics or economic shocks.

The project will deliver the Plymouth Charter, with an aim to ‘build back better’ growing a prosperous economy that reduces inequality, is sustainable and truly serves the wellbeing of all the people of Plymouth.

What are the aims and objectives?

Plymouth City Council has secured €1,127,995.47 from the Interreg FCE programme for its partnership activity to achieve the following:

Respond, Reflect, Report will enable partners, stakeholders and other FCE projects to review initial Covid-response, gather good practice and bring together lessons learnt in order to shape a new package of Covid-19 response and recovery actions.
C-CARE Support for Social Inclusion will deliver targeted support to more than 500 individuals to develop new skills and tools to help them into employment or start a business.
C-CARE Support for Business Recovery will provide direct support to over 200 Plymouth businesses to develop new business models to respond to market changes and ensure a green, inclusive and sustainable economic recovery.
C-CARE Reset and Redesign will develop blueprints for future town centres to improve long term prospects for businesses and work on new ways to tackle social exclusion and in particular digital and food poverty.

How will the C-CARE Project deliver the Plymouth Charter?

The Resurgam Charter is a commitment from Plymouth’s businesses to create a fairer and greener city as we recover from the impacts of the pandemic.

The Charter addresses both the immediate threat to lives and livelihoods presented by the pandemic, and a plan to reset the local economy to address structural inequalities in our city and place a fairer and greener future at the heart of our recovery.

The charter is free for businesses to sign up to, and provides a framework for discussion and decision making through five themes; spend, employ, upskill, community and environment. C-CARE outcomes will align with these five themes, delivering inclusive growth in Plymouth.

What this will mean for local businesses?

More than 200 businesses supported with developing new business models, digital skills and the ability to recover in a resilient, green and sustainable way.

C-Care will build on the lessons of the emergency to enable businesses and organisations to understand and implement new practices that make the city’s whole economy more resilient in the increasingly complex economic environment.

It will provide businesses with new learning tools to understand how their business environment is changing and how they can adapt to new ways of working.

What this will mean for the local community?

More than 500 individuals receiving support to develop new skills and access new tools to help them into employment or start a business.

Skills Launchpad Plymouth will deliver a package of targeted skills support and digital facilitation for people who are unemployed or need support to access a new, more stable career as a result of workplace changes arising from the pandemic.

C-CARE CLOSURE EVENT UPDATE

The C-Care Closure Event was held in Canterbury on 1 and 2 March 2023, with colleagues from across the UK and France attending.

Topics included future working, skills and training, boosting business recovery, economy, growth, inclusivity, digital innovation and revitalising our towns and cities and of course legacy. The sheer scale and innovation of this project has been amazing to witness, we are so proud to have been a part of it.

As this project funding now comes to an end we’ll be working on how the impacts and knowledge can be shared across Plymouth with our stakeholders. More coming soon!

View event presentations

C-Clare Closure Event Update

C-CARE LEGACY

Head to these channels to find out more or download the final reports and toolkit for the C-Care Project.

> CESI's toolkit: https://c-caretoolkit.fr/
> The YouTube C-Care Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@interregc-care4592