Winner announced for What We Are Proud Of award
25 September 2009
A Northamptonshire-based project which encourages children to try their hand at everything from bricklaying to basketball during the school holidays has won the National Housing Federation's What We Are Proud Of Award 2009.
Rockingham Forest Housing Association, in Rushden, beat off stiff competition from over a 150 community projects from across England to be named as the national winner.
Rockingham Forest’s Sports Activity week takes place every summer in a neighbourhood and the scheme is free and open to all tenants’ children, aged from eight to 14. As well as sports, children are encouraged to give some more unusual activities a go too, including bricklaying, tiling, canoeing and raft-building.
Many staff members took a week off work to arrange the activities for the benefit of their communities – at the same time helping to create new and better relationships between staff and tenants. Families praised the scheme for giving their children their only real break of the year, promoting healthy lifestyles and giving their youngsters something worthwhile to do in the school holidays.
Federation chief executive David Orr said: “This is an excellent example of the fantastic work housing associations undertake in their local communities.”
Greg Campbell, Director of Campbell Tickell said, “This initiative is a great demonstration of how you don't need to line up a huge budget to achieve real results. The staff of this association have shown genuine personal commitment to their tenants and this comes shining through with their winning entry. Well done Rockingham Forest!”
To find out more watch a video on YouTube about Rockingham Forest’s winning entry.
Shortlisted entries
Read about the shortlisted entries for this year's What We Are Proud Of Awards.
For more information please email awards@housing.org.uk
Our Stories
|