A pathway to success: homeless residents celebrate their achievements at awards ceremony
Residents in hostels supported by Camden Council who have taken significant steps to rebuild their lives have been honoured at the fourth annual Camden Adult Pathway Awards (CAPA).
The awards celebrate the achievements of residents living in Camden’s hostels and supported housing (the Camden Adult Pathway) who have made progress after facing a range of issues, including drugs and alcohol abuse, mental illness, rough sleeping, domestic violence, sexual abuse and learning disabilities.
The Pathway provides 700 hostel and supported housing beds for single homeless people through 19 services delivered by Camden Council, One Housing Group, Salvation Army, SHP, Sapphire Independent Housing, Solace Women’s Aid and St Mungo’s. They support residents to access activities and programmes that open opportunities to improve their circumstances, including employment, training or engaging in creative activities like artwork, to help them achieve their ambitions.
The award winners were as follows:
- Positive Change - Gary Walker, Cambria House
- Taking Responsibility - Ahmed Hussain, Conway House
- Personal Growth - David Aherne, Camden Housing First
- Overall Achievement Male - Paul Ringer, SIH Recovery Service
- Overall Achievement Female - Eden Testamichael, Arlington
Eden has been in the Pathway for nearly ten years. Before this she felt like she was in a bad place mentally and physically. She now sees a much brighter future ahead.
Eden said: “I am over the moon because I have been in the Pathways quite a while. I feel that I have come a long way and I feel like it’s a great achievement.
“I now have everything in order, my health, everything, and I feel have a sense of direction; I know where I want to go and what I want to achieve. I feel normal and I have some stability.”
“Camden is committed to providing a range of housing options for our residents, including hostels and supported housing for residents who face homelessness. These awards recognise people who have spent time in this accommodation and, with our support, have taken major strides to move from homelessness towards independent living and a better life.
“In the last year over 250 homeless people were successfully referred into the pathway – without these services its likely they would have been rough-sleeping or sofa-surfing. In the same year, 247 people moved on into independent accommodation.”
