Investing in training and job creation has paid off for a Scottish housing body.

Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) has been highly commended in the first ever Herald Society Award for investing in training, jobs and improving neighbourhoods.

GHA was highly commended in the Environmental Initiative of the Year category - thanks to their Environmental Employability Programme, otherwise known as the Community Janitors Project.

The inaugural Society awards, presented by the Herald in association with the Big Lottery Fund, rewards the most modern, most imaginative and most inspiring work carried out in the public and voluntary sectors.

GHA Tenant Chair, Sandra Forsythe, collected the commendation on behalf of GHA at a ceremony last month.


The commendation recognises that the project, operated since 2006 by GHA and its partners, has helped hundreds of long-term unemployed people to transform local neighborhoods across the city while gaining valuable training to help get themselves into work.

The Community Janitors scheme has made a huge impact on the environment and the lives of GHA tenants in local communities and complements existing services provided by Glasgow City Council.

Trainees who are appointed to work in teams have so far carried out 83,437 environmental maintenance tasks including: cleaning; weeding; de-littering and removing rubbish; cutting grass and trimming hedges; reporting repairs and vandalism; removing graffiti and sweeping paths.

The project is more than 30% ahead of target - providing training places for 469 people and supporting more than 254 people back into work. GHA tenants make up 80% of trainees and 75% of people getting back into work.

Sandra Forsythe, said: "The Community Janitors scheme has been a win-win project from the start and we're delighted that our contribution to improving people's lives, neighbourhoods and opportunities has been given national recognition."

(BMcC)