London Housing Foundation
Blog Posts
What its like to win an Andy Ludlow Award: Gerry’s Story.November 26, 2014 12:00 pmGroundswell’s Homeless Health Peer Advocacy Service was recently announced as the winner of the 2014 Andy Ludlow Award and received the first prize of £30,000. We asked Gerry Dickson, a Project Worker at Groundswell, to give us her views on what it felt like to be an Andy Ludlow winner.
After several years of homelessness, Gerry started volunteering on Groundswell’s Homeless Health Advocacy (HHPA) service in 2011, before being appointed as a Project Worker, a paid member of staff, in 2013.
I was so nervous and excited to be invited into the Speakers House for the awards ceremony. The Groundswell team were enjoying the magnificent surroundings as we waited anxiously for the announcement. When they finally read out our name – IRead More
Ronnie Goodman, a lesson in nurturing talent: a blog from Viv Griffiths of St Mungo’s BroadwayOctober 8, 2014 12:00 pmViv Griffiths is a Team Leader for St Mungo's Broadway StreetLink project. She took part in an innovative study trip this year, funded by the London Housing Foundation, to learn more about how homelessness services operate in the United States. In this blog, first published on the St Mungo's Broadway website here, she writes about the power of running and art to improve people’s wellbeing.
On 6 April this year I fell across the finish line of the Brighton Marathon after five hours, one minute and 32 seconds of running (and shuffling, staggering and limping, if I’m being honest). As anyone who has ever attempted to run a marathon will tell you, 26.2 miles is not a challenge to be faced lightly.
Not long after the marathon, I was Read More
Routes to Roots: Tower Hamlets helping homeless people in hospitalOctober 1, 2014 12:00 pmThe Tower Hamlets Routes to Roots project works with homeless or potentially homeless people who are in hospital. By helping them to reconnect with their home borough they help prevent homelessness and reduce unnecessary stays in hospital. The project has been shortlisted for this year’s Andy Ludlow Awards. Alexis is one of their Advice and Support team and this is her story.
When I was first told about the ‘Routes to Roots’ project by my manager I was really excited to be involved. This is a service that supports hospital patients at risk of rough sleeping before they are discharged from hospital.
Often when clients first come to us they are already sleeping rough; a very difficult and desperate situation. With this projectRead More
Siifan’s Story – the reality of being a migrant in the UKSeptember 25, 2014 12:00 pmPraxis provides advice, support and a welcome meeting place for vulnerable migrants and refugees in London. Their “Temporary Homes” project has been shortlisted for the Andy Ludlow Awards 2014. This is Siifan’s story.
Siifan arrived in the UK in November 2008. She was still a child.
She had spent months in trucks, trains and planes, being handed from stranger to stranger in an attempt to get to Britain. But when she arrived, her frustrating and difficult journey was not over.
“I was put in prison in Ethiopia because my family disagreed with the government. After a few months my uncle bribed one of the prison officers and I was let out. But I had to get out of the country as quickly as possible, and my uncle told me toRead More
Tackling Youth Homelessness – Joshua’s StorySeptember 15, 2014 12:00 pmThe London Youth Gateway partnership project has been shortlisted for the prestigious Andy Ludlow Awards 2014, sponsored by the London Housing Foundation, Shelter and London Councils. This is Joshua’s story about how the partnership makes a difference.
Joshua (21) rents a room in shared private accommodation and is very busy with an apprenticeship he loves. How different it was nearly a year ago when he was sleeping rough and in trouble with the law:
“I was on the wrong track, with the wrong friends, making the wrong decisions. I’d come out of prison and couldn’t stay with my family anymore, so ended up the street. I was a right mess, but really wanted to get on with life and never return to prison. And then my probation workRead More
8 Top Tips for a Positive Merger!September 3, 2014 12:00 pmMergers are sometimes necessary in the housing and homelessness sector, for strategic or financial reasons. But mergers are fraught with challenge and need to be handled carefully. At the London Housing Foundation we have helped a number of organisations with complex mergers over the last few years. Here are our key rules for a successful merger!
1. Senior people in each organisation must maintain excellent communication and act in harmony. In particular, negotiating positions should be cleared internally before being shared with partners. Offers made and then withdrawn can seriously damage good relations between partners.
2. Each partner needs to agree a core team to manage merger talks. Having the same people work on the negRead More
Being a volunteer host – Anja’s storyAugust 19, 2014 12:00 pmThe Praxis Community Project’s ‘Temporary Homes’ scheme has been shortlisted for the prestigious Andy Ludlow Awards 2014. This scheme works with people with no recourse to public funds and views immigration status as a support need to be worked with, not a barrier. One element of the scheme is volunteer hosting, where individuals volunteer to take a migrant into their home. Anja Nyberg and her wife Kris have been hosts for a year.
“We got involved because like many people we wanted to help, but had limited time. But we did have space! Our three bedroom house was a great resource and we thought it could be used to help migrants.
This group is perhaps the most vulnerable. They often have absolutely no way of getting fundsRead More
Volunteering with Groundswell: Gerry’s storyAugust 13, 2014 12:00 pmGroundswell's Homeless Health Peer Advocacy Project has been shortlisted for this year's Andy Ludlow Awards. We asked one of their volunteers (now a staff member) Gerry to tell us her story.
After several years of homelessness, I started volunteering. I thought that this would be a good way to get back into a routine and I also wanted to help other homeless people.
I started working with Groundswell, and in 2011 applied to become a Peer Advocate on the Homeless Health Peer Advocacy programme. After an application and interview I was accepted.
Groundswell offered intensive training which developed my commitment to help other people. I learnt lots of things, but perhaps the most important was to shut up and listen to what people sRead More
