High up on the desolate fairways of the old Parkhall golf course, the view stretches right across to Stoke-on-Trent's skyline, long robbed of the bottle kilns that once symbolised the Potteries' prosperity.

Dogged by trenchant unemployment, an unenviable set of health and deprivation statistics, Stoke is still struggling to shake a two-decade-old "sick city" tag.

Almost a third of the city's population is classified in the 10% most deprived in England, and Stoke is the country's eighth most deprived local authority in terms of health. The death rate from disease remains 22.3% higher than the English average.

On the massive Bentilee estate, at the foot of Parkhall, three in five households are benefit-dependent. The proportion of adults claiming jobseeker's allowance in March 2013 was 7.3%, nearly double the UK figure of 3.7%. Across Stoke, long-term unemployment among 18- to 24-year-olds rose by 175% last year. In spring 2013, more than a quarter (26.6%) of residents on the Bentilee estate were on some kind of out-of-work benefit; the figure across Britain was 11.6%.

Low skills levels are also a big problem, with 17.7% of over-16s lacking any qualifications, rising to 61.9% of all adults on Bentilee. At 73% more than the national average, this contributes to the city ranking fifth from bottom for skills in the UK.

"What these school leavers and other long-term unemployed adults need is jobs that employ hands and hearts, as well as their heads," says Rowena Young, chief executive of Urbivore, borrowing Victorian social reformer John Ruskin's terminology.

Making her way down the golf course, Young outlines her vision for a two-pronged attack on the city's woes. Urbivore is Young's new social venture, which aims to bring urban agriculture to Britain's cities on a grand scale, offering jobless young people apprenticeships in horticulture and catering that will help them get full-time work, while boosting the health of local communities by selling locally grown, affordable fruit, vegetables and simple dishes made from them.

"You could have pick-your-own strawberries or flowers on the top [golfing]greens," says Young. "Anything that gets people started, brings them up here. We can refurbish the club house to make a welcoming place to meet. The soil here is good, but it's patchy. Getting it into good health is a long-term project." The lower greens are where the real business will take place: 2,500 sq m of polytunnels full of salad leaves, peppers, cucumbers, aubergines and more. Broccoli, cabbages, pumpkins, herbs and soft fruit will grow uncovered. Plus there will be bees, and fruit and nut trees. Oh, and sheep, grazing the land while growing capacity is developed.

Urbivore's first scheme is in Stoke, where Parkhall's 6.5 hectares (16 acres) of growing space be supplemented by a nursery growing covered crops, as well as outreach work in the city centre. But the target is to create scaleable models that can be replicated across the UK, and the search is on for a second site.

Full-time apprentices aged 16-24 will be recruited from young people not in education, employment or training; ex-offenders; and people who are long-term unemployed. They will spend between 12 and 24 months on the scheme, gaining accredited qualifications through college-based study, practical work experience in growing, as well as learning about financial planning, customer service and marketing.

There will be a small staff team, but volunteers will play a crucial role, with older residents working as both mentors – guiding and coaching apprentices – and buddies, a more hands-on position that will involve gardening alongside their young charges, sharing knowledge and skills. An important element will be a support programme that works on motivation, attitudes and how to build useful networks.

"Any one factor can make the difference between a young person making it, or something undermining their ability to take that job when it comes and stick at it," says Young. "So it is critical to enable young people to pull all the pieces together."

They will be working towards a goal of producing 265 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables over five years in Stoke. Urbivore hopes to offer 27 apprenticeships, create six local jobs and improve the health of 350 people across the city. The city council has awarded a 25-year lease for minimal rent under the community asset transfer scheme – a first for land of this scale and for food growing. Urbivore is seeking £1.35m in charitable grants to establish the venture (and build sustainable revenue streams) – £300,000 to cover polytunnels alone. The scheme has reached the second stages of the Big Lottery Reaching Communities fund and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation's food strand. It has just recruited a head grower and, if funding decisions go their way, the apprenticeships will start in October.

Young believes the scheme can break even in three years. "The amount of food coming off those sites will be staggering," she says.

Since the council came on board two years ago and backed this new model of urban farming, austerity has taken its toll on the estate as local public services, such as outreach from the job centre and support for community groups, have all but disappeared. The council still needs to find a further £50m in cuts next year. On the plus side, says Young, this has lead to a huge willingness to muck in, whether from residents who have lost faith in the state, or local business leaders who feel passionate about starting a new chapter in Stoke.

Young knows a thing or two about social enterprise. She ran the School for Social Entrepreneurs, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School, Oxford University, and the Social Innovation Lab at Nesta (the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts), but Urbivore marks a return to providing frontline services. Her allies in Stoke include ceramacist Emma Bridgewater and TV-historian-turned-Labour-MP Tristram Hunt. How easy will it be to get Stoke's less well-connected and educated residents signed up to Urbivore's plans? Young has held workshops at Bentilee, once Europe's largest council estate, to assess interest in apprenticeships. "It was really hard work getting people involved," she admits. "We didn't have high numbers. They said, 'Employers want experience, I don't have it, so I can't get through the door'. But the quality of what they contributed was incredibly helpful."

Thomas Phillips, 22 and unemployed, was one of the keenest participants at the workshops on the Bentilee estate, turning up after receiving an inviation via text message. He admits he initially felt suspicious of what he judged to be "some posh people from London", but says he has been impressed. "They're putting the work into it," he says. "We've got tons of green space that's not getting used any more round this area. If they can create jobs in the local environment, why not?" Would he be up for doing an apprenticeship? "Course I would. I like working with my hands. I'm a hands-on person."

Andy 25, is also interested. He was unemployed for two years before getting a temporary job driving a digger. He has had some work cleaning but only for a few hours a week and has a one-year-old daughter to support. "There are people out there that want to do something, but they just don't have the opportunity to do it," he says.

The West Midlands has the highest level of obesity in Europe, and Young is realistic about the challenges of switching the population on to Urbivore's produce. Programmes centred on cooking, meal planning and growing food at home are designed to tackle chronic obesity. A food kiosk serving simple soups and salads will be key for "talking to people beyond the usual suspects". Bentilee residents will get a 10% discount on produce.

Urbivore plans to wholesale half of its produce while it builds its customer base, and 60% of the retail sales are expected to be in the villages and towns around Stoke, via a weekly box scheme and running markets.

In the cafe at the Bentilee neighbourhood centre, keen community activists Jenny Barnes and Wendy Johnson have worked closely with Urbivore, offering inside knowledge of the best way to get residents involved.

"On an estate like this it's very difficult because people have been let down so many times over so many years," says Johnson. But they think Urbivore's buddy scheme has promise, and are impressed that their expertise is being harnessed.

"Get on the ground," Young says, "and you find lots of resources to work with, lots of reasons for hope."