The shortlisted projects for the prestigious Andy Ludlow Awards 2014 have been announced.
The six projects now in contention for the prize fund of £55,000 are (in alphabetical order):
- Groundswell UK’s ‘Homeless Health Peer Advocacy Service’
- Hestia Housing & Support’s ‘Children & Family Service’
- London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ ‘Routes to roots’
- New Horizon Youth Centre’s ‘London Youth Gateway’
- Praxis Community Project’s ‘Temporary Homes’
- Thames Reach’s ‘Peer Landlord London’
More details about each of the projects can be found below
Simon Dow is Chair of the London Housing Foundation. He said “We were very pleased with the increased number of applications we received this year and the quality of entries was incredibly high. There is a huge amount of good work being done in the homelessness sector in London, with many organisations doing exciting and innovative things. The Andy Ludlow Awards recognise and honour this and it is a great privilege for us to be able to support them.”
The winners in 2013 were Spires and their Streetlink project. Lucy Barrett of Spires said: “It has been a great year being an Andy Ludlow winner. It is a huge amount of money for an organisation like ours and we have been able to buy a new van to support our street work with women, and fund some other new initiatives that previously were beyond us. More than that, winning the award gave us all a real boost and has helped to raise the profile of our organisation.”
The winner and runners up will be announced at a special event on Thursday 16thOctober at the Speaker’s House in the House of Commons.
The awards are funded by the London Housing Foundation, Shelter and the London boroughs. London Councils runs the awards on their behalf. The first prize of £30,000 is given for innovative and effective ideas that make a positive difference for homeless people. There are also prizes of £15,000 and £10,000.
Details of the shortlisted projects
Groundswell UK’s ‘Homeless Health Peer Advocacy Service’
Homeless people have complex health needs and are extremely expensive patients because they often miss appointments, have multiple health problems but low adherence to treatment and have high levels of unplanned admissions to hospital. By offering one-to-one support for homeless people to attend health appointments Groundswell’s Homeless Health Peer Advocacy service addresses all these issues. Volunteers and employed project workers – all who are former volunteers themselves with personal experience of homelessness – provide not only practical support such as travel fares, reminders and accompaniment to appointments but crucially build the skills, confidence and knowledge to enable clients to continue accessing health services independently.
Hestia Housing & Support’s ‘Children & Family Service’
Hestia’s Children and Family Service provides specialist support for children and their mothers who have been made homeless by domestic abuse and are living in Hestia’s 33 refuges across 12 London boroughs. Last year Hestia provided practical and emotional support to 450 children and their mothers. What makes this project stand out is that it focuses on helping mothers and children to better cope emotionally and psychologically in the long term rather than just at the point of crisis.
London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ ‘Routes to Roots’
Tower Hamlets’ ‘Routes to Roots’ Service addresses one of the perennial challenges facing many of the capital’s hospitals – the struggle for Hospital Discharge Teams trying to source a rehousing option for their homeless out-of-borough patients. ‘Routes to Roots’ works with patients approaching the end of their hospital stay, identifying where and in which borough their local connection lies, and then supporting the patient to return to their home borough on discharge to access housing assistance from their own council. It also assists patients from abroad to reconnect to their country of origin where appropriate and where this is the patient’s preference.
New Horizon Youth Centre’s London Youth Gateway’
The London Youth Gateway has been shortlisted because it shows that strategically combining the resources of established and experienced homeless and voluntary sector agencies can create remarkably effective and responsive partnerships. A London Councils youth homelessness commission, it is a new partnership between New Horizon Youth Centre, Alone in London, Depaul UK and Stonewall Housing – each established providers of services for young homeless people – and the latter’s Jigsaw partners Albert Kennedy Trust, Pace and Galop. A young person who initially comes to London Youth Gateway because they need somewhere to stay that night will be automatically given access to a wider range of services to help them rebuild their life. From finding long-term accommodation to life skills development to vocational training or mental health counselling, the London Youth Gateway is tailors support to each individual.
Praxis Community Project’s ‘Temporary Homes’
Temporary Homes is a housing programme supporting vulnerable homeless migrant individuals and families with immigration support needs and/or No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) from outside the European Union. Emergency accommodation is provided as a means to resolve immigration issues and thereby unlocking housing pathways. As its name indicates, the project provides temporary accommodation, mostly between six weeks and three months, although some limited placements are set up for up to two years. The project is transitional in nature with a very high level of positive outcomes, i.e. more permanent accommodation. The project also provides a home rather than basic shelter in self-catering accommodation, with volunteer hosts or faith communities.
Thames Reach’s ‘Peer Landlord London’
What marks this project out from other similar supported tenancy projects for people with a history of homelessness is that the Peer Landlord is a co-tenant with a shared background who has gained a level of independence and experience and who is able to act as a positive role model; providing supportive housing, not supported housing. The Peer Landlords are not paid to provide any formal support to the tenants. Peer Landlords are trained in key areas such as basic housing management and maintenance awareness, as well as financial literacy – from paying bills to managing money.
The Andy Ludlow Awards
Housing directors at London’s local authorities established the awards in 1999 in memory of Andy Ludlow, former director of Housing and Social Services in the London Borough of Haringey, who died at a tragically young age.
The Andy Ludlow Awards are funded by the London Housing Foundation, Shelter and the London Boroughs. London Councils run the awards on their behalf. The awards are also supported by Inside Housing.
London Councils is committed to fighting for more resources for London and getting the best possible deal for London’s 33 local authorities. We develop policy, lobby government and others, and run a range of services designed to make life better for Londoners.
The London Housing Foundation is a charitable trust committed to assisting the agencies which comprise the homelessness sector in London in securing a better future for single homeless people. We do this by:
- providing funding for initiatives aimed at personal or organisational transitions
- disseminating successful strategies
- publishing research and studies
- supporting agencies through advice and funding.
For media enquiries, interview requests or photos contact Mark Wall on 0790 999 3278 or mark@markwall.co.uk or contact London Councils’ press office on 020 7934 9970 or lcpress@londoncouncils.gov.uk.
