Homeless Link announces redevelopment of online library on homelessness

Published by Homeless Link for Homeless Link in Housing and also in Central Government, Education, Local Government

Today, Homeless Link, the national organisation for frontline agencies working to end homelessness, is relaunching Homeless Pages. This is the leading source of publications and research on homelessness in the UK. First established in 1998, it now has many new features and easy access to all the latest information about homelessness.

Homeless Pages (www.homelesspages.org.uk) helps people working to tackle homelessness understand the issues and offer the best services to homeless people. It ensures they have easy access to the latest published information and research on a whole range of issues relevant to homelessness. The website also helps organisations to share their publications and research to have impact on the widest possible audience. Homeless Pages is supported by the Communities and Local Government (CLG) and CRASH, the construction industry's charity to help homeless people.

Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, said, “It is important that everyone involved in the ambition to end homelessness has access to key information. We can only make the progress we need if we have an up to date knowledge centre where people can test past assumptions against real evidence. Homeless Pages holds the evidence, good practice and research to tackle homelessness. We urge everyone with an interest in influencing policy or developing good practice to visit our new site, to give feedback and suggestions on new material to add. ”

Francesca Roberts, Chief Executive of CRASH, said “Quality research and access to that research is essential not just for agencies providing frontline help and resources, but also for grant givers. We were delighted when CRASH was asked to support the development of the new Homeless Pages. The result has brought together the excellent resources and research that has been undertaken in the UK sector since 1998 and made it readily accessible in one place to the widest possible audience.

CRASH is a practical charity that focuses the professional skills and materials of the construction industry to help homelessness agencies with their building needs. Homeless Pages is another practical and original resource that will help agencies and individuals by making a wide range of quality research and information accessible quickly and easily.

This kind of sharing and partnering is what makes the UK homelessness sector strong and effective and we are proud to have been able to help this initiative."

Ligia Teixeira, Research and Evaluation Officer at Crisis and a member of Homeless Link’s Research Forum, said “I’ve been using Homeless Pages for some years now and find it an invaluable aid to my day to day work. The new look website is particularly well thought out and easy to use, with excellent content. It is set to secure its status as the “leading source of information about homelessness” for years to come. The “just added” tab on the front cover is a useful means of keeping abreast of all the latest developments. And it’s great that organisations can add details of their own publications to the site to disseminate findings to a large, yet targeted audience.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. About Homeless Link

Homeless Link is the national umbrella organisation for around 500 frontline agencies working to end homelessness in England. We are working for an end to rough sleeping by 2012. For more information on our work, please visit our website www.homeless.org.uk

2. About Homeless Pages (www.homelesspages.org.uk)

Homeless Pages is the leading source of publications and research on homelessness in the UK since 1998. It is an online library with details of more than 1,780 books, reports and online documents and receives thousands of visits every month. It was developed from a proposal drawn up with the help of members of Homeless Link’s Research Forum. Homeless Pages is funded by CLG and CRASH (www.crash.org.uk)/
Features:

• Easy to use search facilities
• Instant access to online articles about homelessness
• Links to useful background information about keywords
• Recommended reading lists
• Registered users can rate and comment on publications, add details of new publications, and bookmark and share
• RSS feed of the latest publications on homelessness as they are added to the site

3. About CRASH (www.crash.org.uk)

CRASH is the construction and property industries’ charity for homeless people. We are a practical charity addressing the issues of homelessness by harnessing the skills, products and goodwill of the building industry to improve hostels, day centres, night shelters, training centres and move-on accommodation, for frontline homelessness agencies who work directly with homeless people.

4. About Crisis (www.crisis.org.uk)

Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people. We are dedicated to ending homelessness by delivering life-changing services and campaigning for change.