EC1 project finalist for prestigious award

EC1 Connect, the community outreach project funded by EC1 New Deal for Communities (NDC), has been shortlisted for a prestigious Regeneration & Renewal Award.

The panel of expert judges were impressed by EC1 Connect’s success at helping “hard-to-reach” groups by visiting all the social housing in the EC1 NDC area "door-knocking". Through this, EC1 Connect contacts, for example, pensioners, the long-term unemployed and single parents, and talks to them about a range of needs including training, child care and housing issues. When the advisor has ascertained how to help, they contact the appropriate agency. Judges came to view the project in action last Monday (14 July).

The Regeneration & Renewal Awards are well-respected industry awards that celebrate the best examples of regeneration practice. EC1 Connect is one of only three finalists for the Neighbourhood Renewal Project of the Year. This category awards projects that give social, environmental or economic benefit to a specific neighbourhood.

The winners in each category will be announced at a glamorous ceremony on 18 September at the Hurlingham Club, a magnificent Georgian mansion on the banks of the Thames in Fulham.

EC1 Connect has been operating in the area since 2005, and has helped more than 1,000 people in that time by referring them to agencies that can help them. Read EC1 NDC's report about EC1 Connect here.