Cumbria County Council’s work with other organisations in raising awareness of homelessness in the county could see the authority scoop a prestigious national award.
Last year, the county council’s Supporting People partnership joined forces with Impact Housing and other local organisations to help to raise awareness of the problem and give people who are, or have been, homeless the chance to influence and shape polices in the future.
A Service User Forum now meets each month to policy-makers develop services and support for people who are homeless.
The innovative approach has now been shortlisted for a national ‘Creating the Future 2008’ award.
The awards, which are organised by the government’s Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC), recognise projects and initiatives that contribute to making better places in which to live and work.
Cumbria’s entry is vying with four other organisations in the ‘Innovative Engagement’ category at this year’s awards. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on 5 June 2008.
More information on this year’s ASC awards is available on the organisation’s website at http://www.ascskills.org.uk/pages/awards08
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Media enquiries to Mark Graham, Media Officer on 01228-606337
Note
Supporting People is a national program for funding Housing Related Support for vulnerable adults. Within Cumbria, Supporting People is a working partnership between Cumbria County Council, Allerdale Borough Council, Barrow Borough Council, Carlisle City Council, Copeland Borough Council, Eden District Council, South Lakeland District Council, the Criminal Justice Service and Health.