Working together to get people back into employment

Last week the south neighbourhood held a worklessness and tenancy sustainment conference in partnership with the London borough of Richmond and other RSLs in the borough.

South neighbourhood director, Kevin Jones, is the g15 relationship manager in Richmond. The g15 is a group of the 15 largest housing associations in London who are working to improve the sector. One of their aims is to reduce worklessness in London boroughs so the idea for the conference came as a result of their work in this area.

The days events included presentations from Jobcentreplus on welfare benefit reform, from L&Q on our offer to unemployed residents and Richmond Churches Housing Trust on how tenant profiling can help us target our services for hard to reach residents. L&Q resident Catherine Moore who completed a volunteer placement with us and has since started working for L&Q Direct, also attended to speak to the audience about her experience.

Kevin Jones said, "Helping our residents to maximise their income can transform lives, and finding ways to help our residents get new skills and increase their employment opportunities is absolutely at the heart of this. The Richmond worklessness conference was a superb event that brought together more than 20 of the organisations that can 'Meet the challenge, Make a Difference' by working collaboratively. I'm delighted that we were able to take the lead and make this event happen. I'm certain it will make a difference for many of our residents."