YOUNG PEOPLE LEADING THE WAY ON NEIGHBOURHOOD AWARDS

25 Nov 2005 04:00 AM

A nine-year-old who opened a community cafe, a dedicated phone hotline to combat crime, litter, and graffiti and a community faith forum are among neighbourhood schemes honoured in an awards ceremony.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's New Deal for Communities and Neighbourhood Management Awards 2005 recognises dedicated individuals and teams who are striving to improve the lives of people in their communities.

Baroness Andrews, Minister in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, presented the awards in London on Thursday 24 November.

Baroness Andrews said:

"The purpose of the ODPM awards is to recognise the achievement, dedication and hard work of individuals and groups in delivering real change.

"I know that many people receiving these awards are engaged in the difficult task of improving services and the quality of life for people living in the most disadvantaged communities.

"It is their hard work that will achieve the sustained changes that we all want to make communities cleaner, safer and greener and improve life chances for all - both young and old. Some of the award winners are very young and this is inspiring as it shows that young people do have respect for their community.

"The Government is committed to strategies that involve the community in developing their own responses to their own problems. By involving people in the changes they want to see in their communities it will be more sustainable.

"By giving respect to young people and involving them in decisions that affect their lives they are more likely to respect and care for their neighbourhoods."

Winners are from all over the country - coming from as far apart as Brighton, Stockton-on-Tees, Derby and Hartlepool.

The competition received more than 150 applications, including 20 for the Personal Achievement for a Young Person Award. Categories included health, education, crime, diversity, housing and employment initiatives.

The Government's New Deal for Communities and Neighbourhood Management partnerships are neighbourhood renewal initiatives tackling deprivation in some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country.

The winners of the New Deal for Communities and Neighbourhood Management Awards 2005 are:

In recognition of their very young ages, two special recognition awards were made in the Young Person category.

SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD FOR A YOUNG PERSON

JOINT WINNER: Stefan Vanes, age eight, Hartlepool NDC
Stefan first approached Hartlepool NDC with his ideas on what would benefit children in the area. He attended meetings in the summer holidays, talked to councillors, residents and NDC representatives. He led other children in improving the neighbourhood and was instrumental in bringing the project together.

JOINT WINNER: Jimmy Winson, age nine, Derwent NDC, Derby Jimmy helped to set up a community cafe within the Gateway Centre, Derwent NDC area. His mother was chair of the steering group and Jimmy voiced his thoughts on the cafe, attended meetings and maintained his own records and project information. At the cafe's opening ceremony Jimmy cut the ribbon.

PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT FOR A YOUNG PERSON AWARD

JOINT WINNER: Nicole High, age 19, West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust NDC
Nicole is developing a youth cafe which helps local young people learn how to run their own business. Nicole started volunteering and organising events at her local youth club five years ago when she was 14 years old. She raised money to form a music group and produced a CD. She received a Millennium Volunteering Award for her work with young people. She recently raised £600 to go to Romania as a volunteer to help build a school. She is also a peer support worker for the West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust and is employed as a youth worker trainee. She is part of a community grant making project and a mentor with the Connexions service.

JOINT WINNER: Orin Fredricks, age 21, North Fulham NDC, London Orin completed a two month football training course at Fulham FC and is now manager and coach of North Fulham FC, the Youth Inclusion Project's Under 17 soccer team. He is now viewed as one of the best peer mentors the project has. Orin has also worked with HAFAD, a disability group, and has helped organise residential and music workshops for local young people. Alongside this work, he is employed by the NDC as a youth warden.

PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT FOR A RESIDENT AWARD

WINNER: Rashida Hassanali, resident, Burngreave NDC, Sheffield Rashida works as a community education co-ordinator at St Catherine's Primary School in Burngreave, Sheffield. She is a mother of three young children who all attend Firs Hill School, which has a diverse ethnic mix including asylum seekers and refugees. Three years ago the school was struggling with little engagement from parents. As a volunteer she established the first parent education course at the school. Rashida then went on to help establish 22 courses at the school ranging from 'Islamic Textile Design' to 'Move into Social Care'. She also organised a creche to support these classes.

HEALTH AWARD

WINNER: Lifestyle Fridays, North Fulham NDC, London
Lifestyle Fridays is a community based drop-in service offering health advice. The sessions are staffed by a nurse, dietician and a clinical exercise specialist in North Fulham NDC. Since June 2004, 235 residents have taken part, including 96 overweight and 38 clinically obese residents. Lifestyle Fridays aims to improve the health of local residents by encouraging lifestyle change.

EDUCATION AWARD

WINNER: Ocean Maths Project, Ocean NDC, Ocean Estate, Stepney, east London
The aim is to complement the work of national strategies in teaching maths in both primary and secondary schools. The project is designed to engage parents in the education system. Over the past three years, the project has worked with 2,866 pupils, 86 staff and 1,837 parents in five schools. Improvements can be seen in Key Stage 2 SATs results for Year 6. The number of pupils attaining Level 4/5 has been raised to 75 per cent (Tower Hamlets average) since the project began.

COHESION AND DIVERSITY AWARD

WINNER: Trident Area Faith Forum, Bradford Trident NDC
This forum aims to establish greater understanding and communication between faith communities and encourage involvement in neighbourhood renewal. It has 22 members drawn from local Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh groups and has created a faith directory so different groups can communicate easily. Visits to churches, mosques, and temples, along with an annual 'Faith Marquee', help promote understanding between residents, congregations and faith groups in an ethnically diverse area.

CRIME REDUCTION AWARD

WINNER: Gloucestershire Constabulary, Safer Communities Team, Community Counts, Gloucester NMP
The team successfully reduced crime in the NM area by 24 per cent in the first year. The Safer Communities Team is made up of one sergeant, four constables and two police community support officers who work in the NM neighbourhood. They adopted a community approach to policing, running street surgeries for residents to raise issues of concern and developed a 'Neighbourhood Panel'. This new approach has enabled continuous monitoring in the neighbourhood to tackle crime.

MAINSTREAMING AWARD

WINNER: Sustaining the Change, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council A cleansing and maintenance programme which was first piloted in NM area streets has now been successfully rolled out across the borough making visible improvements. Customer satisfaction rates with street cleansing in the NM area remain above the area average. Community safety has also been targeted with a decrease from 31 per cent to 15.3 per cent of residents who feel unsafe during the daytime in the NM area. Incidences of derelict area fires, vehicle fires and deliberate dwelling fires have also decreased significantly.

LIVEABILITY AWARD

WINNER: Great Lever NM Safe and Clean Charter, Great Lever NMP, Bolton
Residents, services and agencies have come together to combat crime, anti social behaviour, litter and fly tipping. The NMP, jointly with Bolton's Crime and Disorder Partnership, has set up a dedicated phone hot line so residents can report problems. Surveys of both cleanliness and people's perceptions show radical improvements since the introduction of the Neighbourhood Environmental Action Team (NEAT). The organisation has received national recognition for best practice in resolving crime and environmental issues to make the community cleaner, safer and greener.

OUTSTANDING NDC PARTNERSHIP OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Shoreditch Trust, Shoreditch NDC, London
The Shoreditch Trust is a community run regeneration agency. In five years the NDC has witnessed a 44 per cent drop in street crime and a 33 per cent drop in vehicle crime. The 12 locally elected board members make an effective and robust decision making mechanism that delivers for the local area.

BEST SUPPORTING ORGANISATION AWARD

WINNER: The Bridge Community Education Centre, East Brighton for You (eb4U), Brighton, East Sussex
The centre, opened in 2000, provides a vital link between adult education, training and finding employment. It provides more than 50 courses each term for adults aged 16 plus from East Brighton. About 1,000 students enrol each year. It has received a positive Ofsted report.

HOUSING AND PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AWARD

WINNER: Chichester Diocesan Housing Association, East Brighton for You (eb4U), Brighton, East Sussex
Whitehawk Way in East Brighton was identified in 2000 as being a priority for redevelopment. Houses were in a poor state of repair and expensive to heat. Over the past three years, residents together with the Chichester Diocesan Housing Association met to discuss redevelopment plans. The scheme included purpose built disabled bungalows and the first shared ownership housing in the area. New homes are fitted with solar panels to improve energy efficiency and reduce running costs for residents.

OUTSTANDING NM PARTNERSHIP OF THE YEAR

WINNER: Kendray Initiative, Kendray NMP, Barnsley
The approach to Neighbourhood Management in Kendray is providing a successful model that other schemes and initiatives can learn from. The board incorporates members from six community organisations and six service providers ensuring a partnership response to local problems and challenges. The number of residents satisfied with Kendray as an area to live in has risen from 39 per cent to 74 per cent in three years.

EMPLOYMENT AWARD

WINNER: Intensive Support Project, The Employment and Regeneration Partnership, East Manchester NDC
The Intensive Support Project (ISP) has had a positive impact in the area by helping residents to find, secure and keep jobs. The initiative supports long-term unemployed residents with mental health issues, residents with drug and alcohol problems, people with criminal records, the homeless, single parent families, people with disabilities and refugees and asylum seekers. The ISP has helped local people to train and find employment since it began in 2002.

Notes to Editors

1. Both New Deal for Communities and Neighbourhood Management partnerships are funded by the ODPM.

2. New Deal for Communities (NDCs) is a ten-year £2 billion regeneration programme, with partnerships in 39 of the most deprived neighbourhoods around the country. Each partnership typically has about £50 million available to it to tackle multiple deprivations over a ten-year period. NDCs were established in 1999 and 2000.

3. Neighbourhood Management partnerships (NMs) were established between communities and local agengies to test a new approach delivering services to tackle quality of life issues. Total government funding for Neighbourhood Management is £82m.

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