Home » About Us » Sheffield Homes News » May & June 2008 » Sheffield Homes Receives National Accolade
Sheffield Homes Receives National Accolade for Anti-Social-Behaviour Work in Schools
An innovative project to prevent anti-social behaviour has seen Sheffield Homes highly commended in a national awards programme.
Sheffield Homes teamed up with Ecclesfield Primary School to produce a DVD as a teaching aid about anti-social behaviour (ASB). It was highly commended in the annual National Federation of ALMOs Awards, which attracted over 200 entries from companies which manage council housing across the UK. Judges, who included the Chief Inspector of Housing, commended the entry in the ‘Best Use of Communication’ category.
The DVD showcases the preventative anti-social behaviour work carried out in schools by Sheffield Homes’ Community Engagement Teams. It is being used to train new staff at Sheffield Homes who will be working with school children to raise awareness of the negative impacts of anti-social behaviour and encourage good citizenship.
Two of the company’s aims are to tackle and prevent ASB in Sheffield and build stronger relationships with communities and people of all ages. The first chapter of the DVD shows how Sheffield Homes staff introduce the subject of ASB to pupils and how the class can be encouraged to contribute ideas and opinions. The second chapter focuses on helping pupils to develop their own set of ‘Community Rules’ to help reduce ASB.
The Awards were hosted by BBC TV’s Working Lunch presenter Nik Wood and included addresses from The Rt Hon Clive Betts, MP, Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on ALMOs, and Iain Wright, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who praised the work of the ALMO movement, saying that it was an important part of future housing provision and community development.
,
The Lovell Partnerships NFA 2008 ALMO ‘Best use of Communication’ category recognised the hard work of the ALMO’s who are making a difference at a grassroots level. ALMOs who went above and beyond the call of duty, engaging with residents and setting up projects to tackle some of the most difficult issues facing them were represented in the category.
Designed to honour and credit the individuals and teams who do so much at ground level and beyond, the NFA awards have been developed to recognise and celebrate the hard work and achievements of the 67 social housing organisations – which manage more than 1 million council homes, over half of all council housing in England.
The awards were judged by an independent panel; Roy Irwin, the Chief Inspector of Housing at the Audit Commission Housing Inspectorate; Janet Dean, the Strategic Housing Advisor, for the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), Michael Gelling, Chairman of the Tenants and Residents Organisations of England (TAROE) and Steve Hale from awards sponsors Lovell Partnerships.
Steve Hale of sponsor Lovell Partnerships Ltd, who was part of the judging team, said: “This is an inspirational project which demonstrated a really proactive and inclusive approach to the problem of anti-social behaviour. Tackling the subject early in schools with children before they are of an age to cause a problem will hopefully reduce cases.”