The Andy Ludlow Homelessness Awards 2006

Look Ahead's Customer Involvement Programme wins the £10,000 top prize

Look Ahead Housing and Care was presented with the first prize in the Andy Ludlow Homelessness Award 2006 at a special ceremony sponsored by the London Housing Foundation and organised by London Councils.

Look Ahead Housing and Care’s Customer Involvement Programme – based in Kensington and Chelsea - beat five other shortlisted projects to collect the £10,000 top prize.

The charity received its prize from London Councils’ housing chair Cllr Jamie Carswell and Channel 4 presenter Amanda Lamb, at a ceremony at the London Design Museum.

The awards highlight good practice and innovative ways of tackling and reducing homelessness across the capital. They are supported by Shelter, Communities and Local Government (CLG) along with the London Housing Foundation.

Look Ahead Housing and Care provide temporary accommodation for homeless people through 72 supported housing projects, including hostels in Aldgate, Victoria, Earls Court and Bayswater.

The Customer Involvement Programme provides homeless people with training to enable them to become active participants in shaping and developing Look Ahead’s service. The skills they learn are also designed to help them improve their quality of life through finding work and a permanent home.

Around 100 people have benefited from the project since it started 18 months ago, and Look Ahead hopes 200 more will be able to gain from the training scheme over the next year.

The organisation plans to use the £10,000 prize money to pay for an external evaluation of the scheme and help towards publishing a good practice guide to help others benefit from their experience.

Look Ahead’s Housing and Care’s customer service manager Marcus Winter said: “We are delighted to have won this prestigious award.

“All of our customers need some form of support. For any customer involvement programme to be real and meaningful you need to provide your customers with the skills and confidence to become involved on an equal footing. This project isn’t about paying lip service to our customers needs, but it is about empowering them.”

Three projects received £5,000 each after being named as runners up. They were:

• Cardboard Citizens – This Way Up. This is the largest multi-arts based programme of its kind, providing 750 homeless people a year with weekly workshops in circus skills, dance, music writing and theatre. The project is based in Tower Hamlets
• East Thames – Working Future. East Thames use the government funding it receives to reduce the rents for temporary accommodation leased from the private sector and for providing training to help people find work. The project is based in Newham
• Single Homeless Project – Newham Offender Floating Support. This project works with offenders with a background of substance misuse. It aims to help these people achieve and sustain independent living. The project is based in Newham.

Ruth Kelly chooses awards ceremony to announce homelessness drive

Secretary of State Ruth Kelly attended the awards ceremony and used the occasion to announce a new Government drive to tackle homelessness among young people.

Ruth Kelly said the Government would commit to ensuring that by 2010 no 16 or 17 year-olds would be placed in Bed and Breakfast acommodation, unless it is an emergency.

She announced plans to establish supported lodging schemes - that will offer accommodation, advice and mediation services to homeless young people in every local authority area.

Next year, the department would be publishing new guidance to help local councils transform hostels from temporary housing solutions to 'springboards to employment and housing'.

The full speech, 'Tackling the changing face of homelessness', is available on the Department of Communities and Local Government website. Alternatively, you can download a PDF of the speech below.

The Andy Ludlow Homelessness Awards were established in 1999 as a memorial to the late director of housing and social services in LB Haringey. This year’s awards were held a month before the 40th anniversary of the screening of Cathy Come Home, the BBC1 drama on the effects of homelessness.

Want to find out about previous winners?

Read about 2005's Andy Ludlow Awards here.

20 November 2006