Southwark Council wins £10,000 at London Homelessness Awards

18 October 2017

Three projects, including Southwark Council’s trailblazer pilot, made it to the final to share a prize of £60,000 for their projects.

The winning project was revealed at a special event at City Hall where the prizes were awarded by Deputy Mayor James Murray. The overall winner, Network Homes & New Horizon Youth Centre: Project Vista received £30,000, the second placed, Prisoners Abroad Resettlement Service won  £20,000 and the third placed, Southwark Council’s Homelessness Trailblazer Pilot won £10,000.

Organisers received over 30 applications for the awards and a judging panel had to choose just six. The six projects were visited by a member of the panel and the winner and runners up were announced at City Hall.

  • First Prize: Network Homes & New Horizon Youth Centre: Project Vista
  • Second Prize: Prisoners Abroad Resettlement Service
  • Third Prize: Southwark Council’s Homelessness Trailblazer Pilot

Simon Dow is the Chair of the judging panel London Homelessness Awards. He said: “The final six are all excellent projects and we struggled as a panel to agree the three winners. This shows yet again what an excellent job organisations across the capital are doing to help people who are homeless. All these projects show real innovation, sustainability and commitment to help reduce homelessness in London.”

The London Homelessness Awards are sponsored by the London Housing Foundation, London Housing Directors, GLA, Crisis, Shelter and Savills.

As part of its drive towards excellence in homelessness prevention, Southwark Council successfully bid for a £1m share of £20m the government has pledged for its Trailblazer project. The money will be used for the most important part of tackling homelessness:  preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place. The council already has an excellent record in reducing the number of young people particularly that lose their homes after family breakdown.

Cllr Stephanie Cryan, Southwark Council’s cabinet member for housing, said, “ I am delighted we have won one of the three awards – our exemplary service already targets the most vulnerable people, in most need of help to prevent them becoming homeless, so anything that further supports this vital service is great news.”

Southwark Council’s Homelessness Trailblazer Pilot

The trailblazer service is testing the Homelessness Reduction Act. This involves early intervention to prevent homeless, the establishment of a No First Night Out and Housing First Models to prevent people from sleeping rough, and a commitment to end rough sleeping and the use of Bed and Breakfast accommodation by 2020. 

The service employs people who have experienced homelessness and has corporate support across the council and buy in from the voluntary and legal advice agencies in Southwark. The council was the first to use Personal Housing Plans to prevent homelessness and ensure customers can access training, employment and education. This led to the development of Pathway Plans for vulnerable customers and linked into the Housing First model. 

The model has reduced sofa surfing and evictions from family and friends. It is the first of its kind in London and led to the development of the Accommodation Finding Service for all homeless customers. 
A partnership hub developed with Women’s Aid, Job Centre Plus and Shelter will deliver independent advocacy services for customers. This has been combined with a self-help framework to empower customers access a range of services, and a resettlement service for vulnerable customers. 
 

Page last updated: 18 October 2017

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