Description of Peter Bedford
We work in Islington and Hackney alongside people who have faced long-term social exclusion through homelessness, mental health problems, leaning disability or multiple needs. We provide a combination of housing, support, work, training and community to enable people to take control of their lives and shape brighter futures.
Purpose of the grant
The LHF grant enable us to carry out the second stage of an external evaluation to look at how successful Peter Bedford is at enabling people to achieve and sustain social inclusion, what aspects of our style and services contribute to this, and what we could do to strengthen what we do.
Outcomes of activities funded with the grant
Lemos and Crane, a social research company, were commissioned to carry out the evaluation and produced a report, 'Greater than the sum of the parts' which was launched at a conference in November 2001 and distributed to stakeholders.
Whilst containing no major surprises, the evaluation confirmed that what is particularly successful about Peter Bedford's approach is the provision of a combination of services, i.e. supported housing, community opportunities and work and training. The report also identified a number of improvements we could make. One in particular we had already started work on addressing, which was to more systematically assess people's quality of life and aspirations for improvement and then develop with them a personal plan to address those aspirations, using a combination of Peter Bedford and community based services.
Contact
For more information or a copy of the report contact:
Erica Lewis,
Chief Executive,
Peter Bedford Housing Association,
Legard Works,
Legard Road,
London N5 1DE
Tel: 020 7226 6074
Fax: 020 7354 0630
e-mail: Erica.lewis@peterbedford.org.uk
Website: www.peterbedford.org.uk
