Coventry charity helping jobless to close

[dutchman]

A charity that has helped the long-term unemployed for nearly 25 years is closing due to funding cuts.

Citee in Coventry said it had an annual budget of about £80,000 but expected a probable shortfall in the region of £20,000 in 2014/15.

NHS funding had been constant, but other money needed to make up the gap - from government and charitable trusts - had "trailed away", the charity said.

It added liquidators would be appointed on Wednesday.

Citee (Churches Initiative in Training, Employment and Enterprise) has run schemes to help combat depression, anxiety and low self-esteem since starting in December 1989.

It ran programmes aimed at helping to improve people's confidence and motivation as well as providing employability skills, general manager Martin Prue said.

He said: "We've been living on a knife-edge for several years now and we keep trying to keep going with fewer and fewer resources.

"But there comes a time when you have to say that's as much as we can do. So the trustees decided that was the right thing to do."