Ashram wins Gold award

A Midland housing association has 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 for its unique approach to working with people from different backgrounds to overcome cultural and community barriers.
Key projects include:

1.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

2.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.

3.Award-winning campaign and DVD on tackling taboos on mental health in the Asian community and ground-breaking project tackling domestic violence.

As well as the award, Ashram won £50,000 to fund a programme to disseminate its work across the whole country.

It 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.

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.”