TPAS shines a light on national excellence
Monday 1st August 2011
Examples of best practice, inspirational work to improve people's lives and outstanding efforts above and beyond the call of duty were celebrated at the national Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) Awards.
The ceremony was part of TPAS's annual national Conference held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole and recognised the efforts of tenants, landlords and contractors to improve people's lives and communities.
The coveted Tenant of the Year award was won by Pat Fordham of Phoenix Community Housing.
Pat, aged 67, has been a voluntary 'community activist' for 22 years, progressing onto numerous housing boards and committees organised by Lewisham Council, including being chair of the Tenant's Strategy Group.
She has worked tirelessly for the local community culminating in her chairing the tenant-led Phoenix Community Housing Association and receiving an MBE for services to Lewisham in the New Year's Honours list.
Christine Doyle of Knowsley Housing Trust and Dorothy Bloor of Moorlands Housing were highly commended runners-up.
One Vision Housing's Matt Smith became the first TPAS Young Tenant of the Year in recognition of the enormous amount of work he carries out for his community.
His efforts create opportunities for others and his knowledge and expertise enable him to work as a youth engagement consultant as well as chairing One Vision Housing's Youth Forum.
Another new award for 2011 acknowledged Equality and Diversity work and was won by Gateshead Housing Company for its Single Equality Scheme that 'embraces equality' both as an employer and service provider and was developed with tenants, leaseholders, employees and stakeholders to provide a focus to their approach.
The Best Practice in the Community title was won by the Merseyside Residents Network for its Door Step Project in partnership with contractor Morrison.
The project has given 1,500 vulnerable tenants the confidence to open their front door to callers in the knowledge that they will be safe while doing so. It was carried out across Merseyside and Manchester and has forged regional grassroots community links in the North West.
Stockport Homes' H3 Group won the Best Practice in Supporting People Award for its 'Helping the homeless into Housing' initiative.
The H3 Group is a constituted group of current and ex-residents of Stockport Homes' Temporary Accommodation schemes that provide innovative and inclusive ways of supporting residents to make decisions about how the schemes operate. H3 offers a vital link for service users to come together, share their experiences and develop valuable support networks that help assist them once they move on.
The Best Practice in Youth Involvement award went to Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association's Pure Graf work.
Judges were impressed with the way young people are taking the initiative to work together, supported by their landlord to transform their local multi-use games area to enhance the lives of the local area and community. Pure Graf uses legal graffiti to express itself in a unique and positive way.
The Tenant/resident Involvement Officer of the Year for Landlords was won by Komal Doan of The Hyde Group.
Since joining the organisation as a resident involvement officer in Lambeth, Komal has pro-actively encouraged and facilitated residents to get involved regardless of their ethnicity, background, age, religion or sexual orientation.
Her friendly and trusting approach to working with residents has encouraged many to learn new skills so they can contribute to improving the community and has given them the confidence to better their own lives.
The Team of the Year award was won by City West Housing Trust's Incident Management Team for its handling of a major gas explosion that damaged properties in November.
TPAS recognised the way City West put tenants' welfare at the forefront of its emergency response and went over and above what was expected to make sure the needs of customers were taken care of. Within minutes of the explosion City West Housing Trust implemented its Major Incident Plan and set up an Incident Management Team keeping tenants informed throughout.
The Contractor Tenant Liaison Officer of the Year accolade was won by Mears' Annabelle Macbeth after judges were impressed by her enthusiastic personality and the drive in her work which sees her leading Orbit South Housing Association's 'Future Builders' worklessness project with great success.
TPAS Chief Executive, Michelle Reid, said: "I'm once again amazed at the standard of all the entries to this year's awards.
"It is very humbling to listen to the stories behind the awards. The efforts people go to because they genuinely care and want to improve people's lives is a lesson to us all and the winners and all those shortlisted thoroughly deserve this recognition.
"We are lucky to have so many inspirational and committed people working - often voluntarily - to make things better for communities. Well done to everyone."
« back to News
