I think you've hit the nail on the head with regard to the mentoring program helping to get people into the workplace. Clearly, it's a situation where people need to get some work experience to get into the workplace.
One of the things I've been working on is assisting people to do volunteer work for some of the charitable organizations. Usually I don't hear from them because they've been there a month or two and they've then been recruited because their skills are known and they've got some experience.
Have you actually worked with any of the charities or charitable organizations to be able to place people with them to get some experience?