Home Page >
About Harvest
>
What's new
>
2006
>
October 2006
> D & S Short-listed for Prestigious Housing Award
Derwent & Solway Housing Association will be attending the prestigious UK Housing Awards in November at London’s Park Lane Hilton Hotel, having been short-listed in the category of ‘Excellence in Skills Development’ for local initiative, Routes to Work.
Routes to Work is a £2 million ground breaking people based Regeneration initiative working throughout West Cumbria. Its objectives are to reduce unemployment, to engage unemployed residents in learning and training, and to tackle and overcome social and economic exclusion.
Routes to Work has evolved from a partnership entered into by Derwent & Solway Housing Association, Allerdale Borough Council and Rathbone Training, five years ago.
Since 2005, over 1000 people have been helped into work by the programme, with 90% of Routes to Work graduates moving into sustainable employment.
Robert Porter, Director of Derwent & Solway says:
“I am really pleased that the efforts of everyone involved with the development of the Routes to Work project has been formally recognised in this way. The Routes to Work project is an exemplary example of what can be achieved when organisations work together in a collaborative partnering way. Our aim is to capitalise on the fantastic opportunities provided by our own significant investment in our homes and the regeneration of Workington Town Centre and major infrastructure projects across West Cumbria, for our residents. The response we’ve had is phenomenal and many people have been able to gain employment as a result of this project.”
Routes to Work has been recognised by the UK Housing Awards panel as a recruitment programme that goes much further than similar schemes. As well as providing training and re-training, programmes are tailored to meet the needs of the individual including help with personal barriers such as drug or alcohol dependency, which may lead to long term unemployment.
Julie Wedgwood, Routes to Work Manager, comments:
“I am absolutely delighted that the hard work and commitment of the Routes to Work Team has been recognised by the UK Housing Awards panel. I feel that being short- listed in the category of ‘Excellence in Skills Development’ will really put Allerdale on the map. I believe that our success has been achieved by linking job creation initiatives to inward investment activities and that this is a model which could be rolled out extensively, ensuring the most disadvantaged in our societies actually do benefit directly from Inward Investment in their areas.”
The success of the scheme has also led to the Routes to Works and its partners being tasked with leading on the delivery of a pioneering Government pilot scheme to assist people with disabilities back into work. Significantly, the targets set for the number of people assisted into employment within the pilot have been exceeded.
For more information contact Routes to Work at 01900 326 571 or 01900 873 371.