Changing Places, Changing Lives

I was privileged to chair an event last month which celebrated the end of the first ?Leading Places of Change" training programme for hostel managers.

The homelessness sector is undergoing a major cultural shift away from crisis management towards a focus on creation of opportunity and positive outcomes for those receiving the services. The programme that Communities and Local Government asked us to create is unique. It develops leadership skills to bring about the critical change needed to underpin the government's £90m capital investment in the sector.

I am so excited about where it is taking the sector and the kind of skills it is helping to nurture. CIH looks forward to continuing to work with our partners, Broadway and Homeless Link to deliver the programme again later in the year.

Places of Change presents a vision for the homeless sector with great buildings, motivated staff and service users encouraged and challenged to move towards a more independent lifestyle. This style of service is focused on the needs and potential of the individual and focuses on their priorities and potential.

Interestingly, this links with my chosen charity for my Presidential year, which is the Crisis "Changing Lives" appeal, which gives grants to homeless people, and people in vulnerable housing circumstances, to get back into employment, or often in to employment for the first time.

Many services for homeless people have historically been starved of resources and focused on dealing with crisis. So, moving to this new style of delivery requires innovative design, skilful and tenacious management and an eye on the future. We hope that this programme will ensure that the sector has more leaders who are enthusiastic to rise to this challenge.

To support the training delivery CIH has developed a brand new qualification called the ?Leading Places of Change" award. This postgraduate qualification reinforced the learning from the training sessions and encouraged participants to reflect on how theory could help them to understand and improve their work.

More than 80 people decided to take part in the qualification element of the programme with 66 passing so far, and 18 of these achieving an exceptional pass. We asked participants at the end of the programme how many of them had already used the learning in your workplace and 94% of them told us that they had already made changes to the way they and their projects work.

All of the partners are committed to ensuring that the programme continues to make a positive impact and we are looking forwarding to talking to Terrie Alafat (pictured above on the left with BBC's Chris Lowe) at CLG in the future about how we can ensure that we reach the right people. Listen to Terrie's speech at the Awards ceremony

Ultimately, CIH's job is to help professionals be the best that they can be in order to help vulnerable people get back on track with their lives. This training programme helps hostel leaders give homeless people a future. Thanks to our partners Homeless Link and Broadway, all those involved in delivering the training and qualifications elements of the programme and to Communities and Local Government for their financial and practical support. Most of all, though, it's thanks to hard-working professionals who follow the training and make a real difference to their cusotmers' lives.