Ashram strikes gold with national award » Housing » 24dash.com

A Midland housing association today won the nation’s top housing award for its innovative work in bringing together the region’s diverse communities.

Ashram Housing Association, based in Tyseley in Birmingham, won the highly prestigious Housing Corporation Gold Award, including £50,000 to fund a programme to disseminate its work across the whole country.

Today’s Gold Award accolade follows the Chartered Institute of Housing award for ‘Most Outstanding Achievement for Housing in England’ in November, making Ashram the first organisation to win both in succession.

Housing Minister Caroline Flint presented the award to Ashram at a ceremony in London today.

Sir Duncan Michael, Chairman of the judging panel said: "Congratulations to Ashram for securing this prestigious national housing award for building sustainable communities. Their fantastic work in reaching difficult groups and breaking down barriers makes them a worthy Gold Award winner."

Ashram scooped the award for its unique approach to working with people from different backgrounds to overcome cultural and community barriers.

Key projects include:

• The hugely successful Bend it like Birmingham sports scheme involving 300 youngsters from a wide range of different backgrounds in joint sports activity and training.
• The new Centre for Urban Design and Outreach Skills (CUDOS) set up in partnership with Birmingham City University to help people from all communities shape their neighbourhoods.
• Award-winning campaign and DVD on tackling taboos on mental health in the Asian community and ground-breaking project tackling domestic violence.

Ashram Chief Executive Jas Bains said: “Our work is about so much more than providing houses – it’s about creating safe and friendly communities where people want to live.

“Our approach is to ensure that in everything we do we consider how it can make a positive impact in terms of fostering stronger communities.

“The diversity of the Midlands is what makes it special and I feel proud that we are helping to create places where people live and work together in harmony.

“Coming just after the anniversary of Enoch Powell’s infamous speech, I think we can look back with pride at the enormous progress made here in the Midlands in the last 30 years.

“I want to thank our staff, who work exceptionally hard and fully deserve recognition from what is the highest accolade in the housing world.”

Two other organisations also won Gold Awards for Building Cohesive Communities, the Papworth Trust and Old Ford.