Six schemes shortlisted for Ludlow homelessness awards

Six projects working with homeless people are in line to win a share of more than £50,000 as the shortlist for the 12th Andy Ludlow Homelessness awards is announced by London Councils.

The shortlist includes a youth centre giving young homeless people access to job opportunities and education, a scheme ensuring homeless people get proper healthcare at an inner London hospital, and an organisation giving ex-prisoners support and advice on housing, benefits and other factors which will help them integrate back into society.

The annual awards are open to registered social landlords, local authority housing and social service departments, NHS trusts and voluntary organisations in London. The winner will win £25,000, with £10,000 going to each of the two runners up. Three shortlisted organisations will win £2,000 each. A condition of the awards is that prizes are invested back into the winning scheme.

Nigel Minto, head of sustainable communities at London Councils said:

"We're absolutely delighted with the high standard of entries to this year's awards. Every organisation that has entered should be extremely proud of the work they're doing to help homeless people in the capital.

"These six shortlisted projects illustrate some of the very best work being done by groups across London and this year we have a really mixed and exciting bag. We look forward to announcing the winner in the autumn and wish them all the very best of luck!"

The six projects shortlisted for the 2010 awards are:

*Cricklewood Homeless Concern: Youth Engagement Scheme (YES)
The YES project was set up by young homeless people in 2008 in response to local resident concerns about a group of youths engaged in anti-social street based activities. The project is unique because it is managed by the young people themselves. These young people have formed a steering group to develop projects in the community that tackle exclusion and divert other young people away from homelessness and anti-social street based activities. Examples of YES activities include summer football and boxercise sessions, participation in residents associations and ward panels, and training sessions for new police recruits.

*Depaul UK: Broadening Horizons
This project helps homeless and disadvantaged young people get the skills they need to get back to work by organising work experience placements for them. It is open to all young people benefiting from Depaul UK's in-house programmes in various parts of the capital including Brent, Camden and Islington. All young people are offered a reference from their placement and assistance with updating their CV. They are also signposted to other Depaul projects and external agencies to support them with their next step on the path to sustained employment.

*New Horizon Youth Centre: Creating Positive Futures Work Programme
The Creating Positive Futures Work Programme started in October 2009. It enables young homeless people attending the New Horizon Youth Centre in Camden to access education, employment and training opportunities, by providing accredited courses on using the internet, securing job placements or helping them complete CVs. New Horizon Youth Centre has committed to delivering this programme to 200 young homeless people a year, and in the first six months of the project was already a long way towards meeting this target by helping 144 homeless people.

*St Mungo's: Brent Dual Diagnosis Project
Brent Dual Diagnosis Project helps homeless people with severe and enduring mental health and substance use problems in Brent. Unlike other service providers, the project takes a holistic approach to helping its clients by considering the social, medical, physical and psychological needs together. It does this by integrating psychotherapists and other professionals, into the in-house support team and offering intensive staff support 24 hours a day. This tailors a unique approach to each individual, rather than a one-size-fits all method.

*The London Pathway for homeless healthcare
Based in University College London Hospital (UCLH) in Camden, the service has a dedicated homelessness nurse and a specialist homelessness GP working on the wards of the hospital. They co-ordinate proper care across all hospital departments, work with patients on underlying mental health and substance misuse problems, and through their attention to detail and advocacy, make sure that homeless patients get all the care they need and are entitled to. This includes making sure that patients are also supported after they have left the safety of the hospital.

*Vision Housing
This project works with homeless ex-offenders to break down barriers with private landlords and make sure that they have access to good quality homes. Since 2007, they have housed and supported over 235 people. Only 10 per cent of these have reoffended which is very low in comparison to the 75 per cent London average. As well as housing, the project helps former prisoners access benefits, training and employment to help prevent reoffending and whatever other advice and support they need. This includes allowing clients to come back at any time if they need to. They get referrals from a wide range of organisations including charities, the police and Croydon, Kingston and Merton councils.

The awards ceremony will take place in the evening of 21 October at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
London's housing directors established the awards in 1998 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 awards are run by London Councils and funded by all 33 London authorities together with sponsorship from London Housing Foundation, the government's department for Communities and Local Government, and Shelter. The awards are also supported by Inside Housing.

Last year's winner was Broadway, a charity helping homeless eastern European.