St Giles Trust wins Andy Ludlow Award 2007

The win is for the Straight to Work project, which employs ex-offenders to provide a 'meet at the gates' service for newly-released prisoners to help with housing and resettlement support.

St Giles Trust previously won the Andy Ludlow Award in 2004 for its Peer Advice Project, which aims to break the link between prison and homelessness by training serving prisoners to become Peer Advisors, providing a housing advice service to their fellow inmates.

Set up in May 2006, Straight to Work was a development to the Peer Advice Project, employing the released Peer Advisors to provide housing resettlement support for newly-released prisoners.

Support offered includes escorting ex-prisoners to pre-arranged housing, helping them with benefits and also help with more general resettlement issues such as employment, training and re-establishing contact with family.

Chief Executive Rob Owen said: "We are absolutely delighted to have won the Andy Ludlow Award for the second time in three years. The win is even more poignant becasue the person who was instrumental in setting up the Straight to Work project, Kemal Mulbocus, sadly died on 22 June of this year.  Straight to Work has had a huge impact on the lives of botht he clients it has helped and the ex-offenders who work on the project. 

He continued: "Coming out of prison is a crucial time and if basics such as somewhere to live and an income aren't in place, the risk of re-offending is very high. By employing people with direct experience of these issues to provide intensive support to others, we can offer a high quality service which really helps people resettle and provides stable employment for ex-offenders."

The Andy Ludlow Awards recognise projects which improve services to homeless people, prevent homelessness or tackle disadvantage caused by homelessness.