Award for L&Q

A London housing association has beaten more than eighty entries to make the final six for a prestigious Housing Corporation Gold Award.

The L&Q group who manage homes in the Greater London area as well as the South East have been short-listed for their work with the Turkish speaking Kurdish community.

L&Q entered the Empowering Communities category for their "Reaching out to excluded communities" project.

The aim of the project is to ensure those who do not have English as a first language can still take part in influencing existing services. In addition it sets out to help develop their ability to improve the quality of their own lives. A number of initiatives have been run to do this including;

Establishing the first Kurdish/Turkish residents association in Enfield, as well as offering monthly drop in sessions about housing issues with help from an interpreter.

Suzanne Thomas, who has been managing the project for L&Q, said: "The project has succeeded in reducing isolation, improving family relationships, personal independence and community relationships. It has also increased voluntary and community group activity, and the community's ability to contribute to and affect local initiatives and communicate more effectively at all levels.”

Judges will carry out field visits this month, with three of the six receiving awards at the ceremony in May. In addition each winner will get £50,000 to help share the work with other housing associations.