Blue Sky has won two important awards within the space of a few weeks. Both the Centre for Social Justice and the Spark programme have selected Blue Sky to win one of their hotly-contested awards. Blue Sky is GTV's social enterprise that helps ex-offenders re-enter the workplace.
The Centre for Social Justice's awards "recognise, reward and celebrate the work of exceptional poverty fighting organisations".
The Spark programme honoured Blue Sky because of "the innovative and entrepreneurial way they support people to return to stable accommodation and employment." The support received by the programme will help Blue Sky to develop its new operation in
Centre for Social Justice Award
Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke MP presented the Centre for Social Justice awards, saying, "Blue Sky is an exceptional social enterprise that offers hope and a way to break the cycle of offending by providing tailored mentoring - and that all-important job."
Blue Sky team member John Wilson accepted the CSJ award on behalf of the company. John said, " The poem by Oscar Wilde, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol', says: ‘I never saw a man who looked with such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue which prisoners call the sky.' We take our name from that poem. To quote Michael Caine: ‘Not a lot of people know that.' We are over the moon to get this award. It is recognition that we are more than just ex-offenders. Thank you to the judges and the team for their support. Thanks also to Iain Duncan Smith for setting up the CSJ. Finally, I'd like to say thank you to my supervisors and the team at Blue Sky. Without them I'd probably be homeless or back in jail. Please help them to help more people like me."
The Centre for Social Justice is an independent think tank established to seek effective solutions to the poverty that blight parts of
Spark programme
Blue Sky is one of 15 organisations who share £640,000 of investment into a wide variety of organisations who allow homeless individuals to receive training and support, and give them a route back into work and a stable lifestyle.
Homelessness Minister Iain Wright said, "Spark is a unique opportunity for social enterprises to help the homeless into independence, through working with private sector business experts to develop their innovative business ideas.
"I'd like to congratulate this year's finalists whose creative ideas will help change business places for the better.
"Training and employment is crucial to helping people re-build their lives away from the streets and this is exactly what Spark and our homelessness programmes aim to do."
Andrew Darron, Head of Regional Development, Groundwork Manchester, Salford, Stockport and Tameside, said, "We've faced some stiff competition from some excellent social enterprises around the country in-order to win this award, and the funding is going to make a significant contribution to our efforts to establish Blue sky in Greater Manchester.
Short videos of Blue Sky and the other Spark winners can be seen at: http://www.sparkchallenge.org/2009_winners.html
The Spark programme has been developed by the TREES Group, Eastside Consulting and Big Issue Invest. It is backed by the Department for Communities and Local Government, Places for People, BT, and PricewaterhouseCoopers - bringing together the social enterprise, public and private sectors with the common aim of helping the homeless into independence.
You can read more about Blue Sky and its work at: http://www.blueskydevelopment.co.uk/
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