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Charity supporting ex-prisoners to avoid homelessness wins prestigious award
The St Giles Trust, a Southwark-based charity working to support ex-prisoners, has today been named winners of the 2007 Andy Ludlow Homelessness Award - making it the first organisation to win the awards for a second time.
The charity's Straight to Work Opens in a new window (S2W) programme received the award from broadcaster Jon Snow at a special ceremony at BFI Southbank organised by London Councils. Communities Minister Iain Wright MP was a special guest at the ceremony.
St Giles Trust works to support ex-prisoners avoid re-offending. One in three discharged prisoners will have no home to go to when they leave prison; and three out of four will have no job. This is a problem because homelessness and unemployment are the two factors most likely to lead an ex-prisoner to re-offend.
For three years the St Giles Trust has worked to address this by training serving prisoners to provide advice and guidance on housing, employment and other issues on the inside - and it was this innovative work that led to its first Ludlow Award in 2004.
Three years on, and the Trust's S2W programme employs trained ex-prisoner advisers to meet newly-discharged prisoners at the prison gate to offer advice and support them into employment. It also places ex-peer advisers in paid, longer term work, primarily in other homelessness organisations and charities.
St Giles Trust saw off the challenge of five other shortlisted projects to collect the £10,000 top prize. It becomes the ninth winner of the awards which are organised by London Councils to highlight good practice and innovative ways of tackling and reducing homelessness across the capital. The awards are sponsored by Communities and Local Government (CLG), the London Housing Foundation and Shelter.
London Councils Executive Member for Housing - and chair of the Andy Ludlow Homelessness Awards judging panel 2007 - Councillor Jamie Carswell said:
"The strength of entries to this year's Andy Ludlow Awards made the job of picking just one overall winner an exceptionally hard task for the judges. This speaks volumes for the level of commitment, across the full range of public agencies and voluntary organisations, to finding solutions to homelessness. We would like to congratulate the St Giles Trust, along with the other shortlisted entries, for the exemplary work they are doing for some of the most vulnerable members of our society."
Welcoming the award, Chief Executive of St Giles Trust, Rob Owen said:
"We are absolutely delighted to have won the Andy Ludlow Award for the second time in three years. Today's win is even more poignant because the person who was instrumental in setting up the Straight to Work project, Kemal Mulbocus, sadly died on 22 June of this year. Straight to Work has had a huge impact on the lives of both the clients it has helped and the ex-offenders who work on the project. Coming out of prison is a crucial time and if basics such as somewhere to live aren't in place, the risk of re-offending is very high. By employing people with direct experience of these issues to provide intensive support to others, we can offer a high-quality service which really helps people resettle and provides stable employment for ex-offenders."
Three projects also received £5,000 each after being named as runners up. They were:
- Brent Homeless User Group and the West London Partnership - Mystery Shopping project: a mystery shopping project to assess frontline housing services in the west London boroughs
- Hammersmith and Fulham - Singles Homelessness project: a second tier homeless prevention service; has placed 150 people in supported accommodation and provides education outreach to 600 children. The project is based in Hammersmith and Fulham
- UR4Jobs, Upper Room: a frontline charity providing advice and access to work for immigrants, mainly from the Polish community. The project is based in Hammersmith and Fulham.
The two remaining projects on the shortlist, DePaul Trust's Drive Ahead and The Streetwise Community Law Centre were each commended, receiving £500 each. The six shortlisted groups were chosen from around 30 entries.
The Andy Ludlow Homelessness Awards were established in 1999 as a memorial to the late director of housing and social services in LB Haringey.
Jon Snow is a respected broadcaster and the main presenter of the Channel 4 News. This is the second time he has presented the Andy Ludlow Awards.
The Andy Ludlow Award panel of judges were: Cllr Jamie Carswell, London Councils; Colin Moone, Director of Housing, LB Waltham Forest; Steve Guyon, on behalf of Terrie Alafat, Communities and Local Government; Don Woods - London Housing Foundation; and Adam Sampson, Shelter.
For press enquiries please contact: Chris Hogwood on 020 7934 9757 Chris.hogwood@londoncouncils.gov.uk Fax 020 7934 9777
For enquiries for the St Giles Trust, please contact Tamsin Gregory, Communications Manager, 020 7703 7000 ext 233, or email:Tamsin.Gregory@stgilestrust.org.uk
For non-media enquiries contact: London Councils, 59½ Southwark Street, London SE1 0AL Tel 020 7934 9999 www.londoncouncils.gov.uk
