Community projects success for Tai Tarian
Fingers are being crossed at Tai Tarian, after the social housing provider was named a finalist in two separate categories at the Welsh Housing Awards.
The awards celebrate the creativity, passion and innovation of housing organisations across Wales, and have seen Tai Tarian recognised in both the Building Safer Communities and Supporting Future Generations categories.
The nomination for the Building Safer Communities award comes as a result of the work the organisation has done in partnership with South Wales Police to combat anti-social behaviour and ‘County Lines’ drug problems in local communities. The ‘Better Together’ partnership included joint patrols, community drop-in offices and a more formalised way of sharing information. This work has seen both organisations being more accessible and has resulted in them forging stronger relationships with tenants and helping to create safer communities.
The Supporting Future Generations shortlisting is in recognition of the success of Tai Tarian’s Fusion project. The work sees the organisation using arts and culture as a means to encourage learning and create routes to employment for people.
Amongst the work done so far is a project with local schools to create engagement days, where life skills such as financial literacy, numeracy and employability skills are taught. As a part of this, pupils attended entrepreneurial workshops to produce, cost and sell various items featuring Port Talbot’s famous Banksy mural.
To date the project has supported 45 families to improve their financial literacy whilst it has encouraged 30 individuals to pursue volunteering opportunities in a bid to improve their employability.
Speaking after the shortlists were revealed, Tai Tarian’s chief executive, Linda Whittaker said:
“As well as building new homes, working to make our communities safer and more vibrant places to live is very important to us as an organisation.
Both the projects shortlisted have proven very successful so far and has seen a real benefit to the people who live in our properties as well as the wider community.
The success of both these projects has relied on the dedication and professionalism of our staff and I’m pleased that their hard work has been recognised in this way.”
The winners of the awards will be announced at a special ceremony in Newport on Friday 15th November.
