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At the Gateway training centre in south-east London, Michael, an unemployed musician, sounds upbeat. He has just watched a video of himself doing a mock job interview. "I look dead," he says frankly. "It's because I'm thinking before I answer the question. I've learned that I need to keep focused."
When he registered at the centre two years ago, Michael, 37, was homeless, in debt and had poor information technology (IT) and literacy skills. Now, having completed a sound engineering course, he is back at the centre to use its skilled advisers and internet access to find a job.
Gateway is part of Getting London Working, one of 30 British programmes run by Tomorrow's People, a charitable trust with a big corporate backer. It was launched more than 20 years ago by GrandMet, the drinks group that merged with Guinness in 1997 to form Diageo, now the world's largest spirits company.
The trust's work has been used as a template for other Diageo community programmes, including bartender training for young unemployed people in Brazil.
At the time it was formed, GrandMet's board was responding to Britain's inner city riots of 1981. It realised that the closure of breweries at a time of high unemployment under the Thatcher government could exacerbate tension.
At the time, there was little thought of measuring the impact of a company's contribution to the community. Since then, headline unemployment has fallen dramatically and attention has focused on getting the long-term unemployed back into work. But public expectations and mistrust of big business have grown. Companies have to show that their claims of social responsibility mean something.
To find out whether its flagship community programme has been value for money, Diageo commissioned an evaluation from Oxford Economic Forecasting (OEF), an independent consultancy.
The study shows that carefully targeted private sector money can leverage many times its value in public funds. Over 20 years, Diageo has invested £25m in today's prices, as well as management time and resources. In total, the trust has made investments of £285m, largely funded by government and the European Union (EU).
The economic and social benefits are estimated at £450m -- a return on investment of 160 per cent -- and include savings on welfare payments, additional tax receipts and reductions in crime and healthcare costs.
The trust has helped about 382,000 people who wanted to move out of long-term unemployment into jobs, education, training or voluntary work. Using conservative measures, the study says at least 35,000 people have found work who would not have done so otherwise and who did not take some one else's job. The emphasis is on hard-to-reach people, such as lone parents and former offenders. Many of its clients start with little or no work experience and suffer from low self-esteem.
They are given action plans and "homework", such as finding out about local colleges, says Julie Sexton, Gateway manager. "This is quite crucial. If we do it for them and they get a job and then lose it, they'll be back at base one. We give them skills to be independent in finding another job,"
Advisers are able to give far more time to clients than the government's Jobcentre Plus service, according to the OEF evaluation, Once they have found work, the project keeps in touch for up to a year and supports their employers.
Some 90 per cent of the trust's clients who find jobs still have them three months later, and 70 per cent a year later. The very success of its approach -- described by Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, as "an inspiration" for the government's New Deal programme -- caused it difficulties in the late 1900s. Its contract income fell dramatically as government funds were redirected towards official programmes. In response, it developed new initiatives.
Debbie Scott, head of Tomorrow's People, hopes the government will work with it and not just borrow its ideas under its latest plans to get more older and disabled people, women and lone parents into work. "We're in a position to deliver a more effective service, and probably more sustainable results, because of our independence," she says.
As for Diageo, the project has helped staff to learn new skills and the company to strengthen links with government, the report says. This can be no bad thing when the drinks industry is under intense scrutiny, whether over brewery closures in the 1980s, or binge drinking in the 2000s.
Geoffrey Bush, Diageo's director of corporate citizenship, says the company has adopted the trust's approach of partnering local agencies in its bartender training, now being introduced in parts of Asia and Africa. It is also commissioning an evaluation of the social impact of the Brazilian project.
The study of Tomorrow's People has helped the trust in approaching donors, says Ms Sexton. "We can use the information on return on social investment and we can say to potential funders: 'This is our track record and impact. We're not a fly-by-night organisation'." (Exclusive to FE Syndication Service)
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