HELP: Tackling worklessness and homelessness
The Housing Employment Link Project (HELP) is funded by Communities and Local Government and works across seven West London boroughs: Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
It was initially a 2 year pilot project that sought to create a model for referring workless West London residents living in Temporary Accommodation, facing homelessness or with a housing need into local employment and training agencies. From April 2009 the project was awarded Enhanced Housing Options 'Trailblazer' status by CLG and will be funded until March 2011.
Work is continuing across the seven boroughs to embed the culture change that the project has brought about and work is continuing to keep employment at the heart of Housing Options.
HELP has trained over 350 West London Housing Options Advisers to equip them with the skills to refer customers in housing need and those living in temporary accommodation into training and employment opportunities. Utilising their contact time with a traditionally hard-to-help client group, Housing Options Advisers are routinely discussing employment and training aspirations with their customers, linking them to local training and Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) providers.
The project has also worked with staff from Housing Associations and private sector managing agents that manage temporary accommodation to refer their tenants to employment and training provision.
In addition, HELP has worked alongside staff from identified training providers to raise awareness of the barriers faced by those living in temporary accommodation in accessing employment and training. By adopting this innovative approach, 86 workless residents living in either temporary accommodation or social housing have found employment with over 130 more people entering some form of training.
For further information please email HELP Project Manager, Billy Seago, SeagoB@ealing.gov.uk Tel: 020 8825 5142
Click here to see the HELP project evaluation report, June 2009.
HELP is actively promoting the benefits of working and the Benefits Adviser on the Direct.Gov website is an excellent tool to demonstrate that for most people, work is both affordable and viable. Click on the link below to access this easy-to-use tool.
Link to Direct.gov.uk Benefits Adviser page
Last updated: 29 June 2010