While most of the projects and initiatives undertaken by Human Resources and Employment (HRE) are provincial in nature, several projects have had a particularly strong impact on Labrador.

• Government has implemented a Coastal Labrador Allowance for income support clients with dependent children who live in their own homes in coastal Labrador.

• The benefit, an extra $150 per month per family, responds to concerns of both HRE staff and clients about the higher costs of food and other essentials for coastal families.

• Linkages is a youth employment program that provides job placements for high school graduates (aged 18-24) who have not yet started work or post-secondary schooling. The program is designed to place these young people in jobs related to their careers goals.

• In the 1999-2000 fiscal year, HRE funded three Linkages programs in Labrador through the Labrador Friendship Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, School District #2 in the Labrador Straits area, and the College of the North Atlantic's Labrador West Campus in Wabush.

• Four Linkages projects will receive funding in the current fiscal year, including the three previous recipients and the Labrador White Bear Outreach in Port Hope Simpson.

• The Linkages program run through the Career Drop-In Centre at the Labrador Friendship Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay was recognized at an international youth programs conference in Hull, Quebec, in 1999 for its innovative approach to working with at-risk youth. That program resulted in 22 of the 25 participants either finding full-time employment or pursuing post-secondary studies.