What was the Making Links project?

Making Links was an innovative project which brought together key homelessness agencies and Further Education colleges in Central London to improve the delivery of learning services to homeless people. The project was funded by London Central Learning and Skills Council and ran for 12 months from January 2003.

Why was 'Making Links' necessary?

The project came about as a result of OSW's involvement in the planning of a half day conference called Making Links, that was held in March 2002. This conference, funded by the Central London Learning Partnership, reviewed the work with homeless people of four central London Further Education colleges - City Literary Institute, Westminster Kingsway College, Mary Ward Centre and City of Westminster College.

These colleges had been developing local community based engagement into learning programmes, working with daycentres, rolling shelters and hostels in Central London since 1999, and were very keen to continue working with the homelessness sector.

OSW felt that the increased activity of colleges in the education and training of homeless people raised some important questions about service delivery that needed to be resolved;

• How does the work of the colleges fit with the established services provided by homelessness sector providers?
• Is there unnecessary duplication of services?
• What can the different sectors learn from each other's experiences of working with homeless people?
• How can the two sectors work together to improve delivery of learning services to homeless people?
• How can the two sectors work together to improve sustainment of learning for homeless people moving into the mainstream?
• Is it possible to identify which sector does which learning activity best?

OSW proposed that these questions could be answered by setting up a cross-sectoral project - "Making Links".

What were the aims of Making Links?

To inform the planning processes of Central London Further Education colleges, homelessness organisations, other learning providers and the Learning and Skills Council, by:

• Promoting the learning needs of homeless people;
• Informing future bids for service delivery by providing robust evidence about the needs of homeless learners, the gaps in provision that exist and the effectiveness of different approaches;
• Developing transferable models of collaboration between the homelessness and Further Education sectors; and
• Improving the learning opportunities available to homeless people and specifically to:
• Improve engagement provision;
• Improve progression routes; and
• Improve sustainment of mainstream courses.

Who was involved?

A steering group was assembled as below:

• OSW
• City Literary Institute
• London Connection
• Westminster Kingsway College
• Depaul Trust
• Mary Ward Centre
• St Mungo's Association
• City of Westminster College
• St Botolph's Project
• Homeless Link
• Groundswell UK
• Association of College
• Central London Learning Partnership
• NOVAS Overtures Group
• Thames Reach

Practical aspects

Practical outcomes of the project included:

Events/seminars

• Three events on the themes of Engagement, Progression and Mainstreaming/Support were held. The events focused on identification of good practice and featured key findings from research carried out by the project. The events were free and advertised broadly through training and education networks across the sub-region.

Research

• Research into Engagement work, Tracking of homeless learners and Training needs for trainers/teachers working with homeless people was carried out.
• Promoting the needs of homeless learners.
• Homelessness awareness training was offered to colleges that wanted to understand how they could respond more effectively to the needs of homeless learners.

Networking

• Steering group meetings were held every two months, which provided a place for members to discuss new policy initiatives and share views.
• Workshadowing - workshadowing partnerships were set up between trainers/teachers in each sector to allow them to understand how each other work.

Dissemination

• Reports on events and research were produced and made available through a range of existing networks in Central London.
• A pan-London end of project conference was held to promote the work and findings of the project to a wider audience.

Preparation for future bids

• Partnership brokerage - the project identified gaps in provision and supported the development of appropriate bidding/delivery partnerships.

Project Reports and Information

During the project, various reports were produced, which can be accessed by visiting the Online Library.