Tackling Multiple Disadvantage (TMD) London

NEWS

OSW, for its TMD project, has been awarded the Charity Awards 2008 award in the category of Research, advice and support. Follow this link for more information on the Charity Awards 2008

Tackling multiple disadvantage in London by improving employability

Funded by the Equal Community Initiative, our TMD London programme targets individuals facing multiple disadvantage in the labour market who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, in temporary accommodation or have been recently resettled. An exciting programme of services and innovations, TMD London aims to test a number of new methods of supporting these individuals to improve their employability.

Issues tackled through TMD London

The programme is being delivered by a diverse and expert partnership of agencies from the Public, Private and Voluntary sectors.

Partner agencies are:

Cardboard Citizens | Connection at St Martins | Depaul Trust | East Thames | FEANTSA | Greater London Authority | Groundswell UK | Homeless Link | Kensington and Chelsea Volunteer Bureau | OSW | ProspectUs | Race on the Agenda | Southwark Volunteer Centre | St Mungo’s | Thames Reach | Wandsworth Voluntary Sector Development Agency | Westminster Volunteer Centre |

Our Service Users

We work with a diverse range of people, from different backgrounds, with many different needs and aspirations. These individuals all have experienced social exclusion in some form, and in many cases, may have found accessing mainstream employment, training, advice and support services difficult.

• 30% of our service users are hostel residents, while 12% are recently resettled, and 4% are rough sleepers (50% have slept rough at some point in their lives).
• The large majority (92%) of the people we support are unemployed, and 34% have been unemployed for more than 3 years.
• 70% of service users have previous work experience and 43% have a basic qualification.
• 19% have identified literacy needs and 16% have identified ESOL needs (i.e. English is not their first language).
• 12% of have one or more extra support need relating to alcohol, drugs or mental health issues.
• 19% have a criminal record
• 8% are refugees or asylum seekers.

Impact of the Equal TMD London projects

In the period July 2005 - October 2007, we worked with over 800 individuals. Of these people:

• 120 went into further education or training
• 150 went into employment
• 187 took up a volunteering opportunity

At policy and practice level, we are working towards mainstreaming the programme including:

• promoting the expansion and replication of successful projects
• producing a number of toolkits and good practice guides
• developing the Right Deal for Homeless People.