Fusion21

Fusion21 Win At Regeneration & Renewal Awards

Fusion21 have won the award for ‘Boosting a Local Economy’ at this year’s Regeneration & Renewal Awards, beating off all other competition. BBC News night economics editor Paul Mason presented Fusion21 with their award at the event in London last week.

The Regeneration & Renewal Awards is now the only awards programme dedicated to celebrating the work of all parts of the regeneration sector, from economic development to the physical and social rejuvenation of the UK’s towns, cities and communities.

Fusion21 where shortlisted for a Regeneration & Renewal award after a panel of 40 expert judges met to consider over 200 entries. The award for Boosting a Local Economy celebrates public sector or voluntary sector backed projects that have made a valued contribution to their community’s economic prosperity.

Fusion21 has made innovative use of RSL investment to stimulate economic growth and deliver housing services and it is clearly providing jobs in a difficult community,” says awards judge David Marlow, chief executive of Third Life Economics.

National Social Enterprise Fusion21 work with social housing provider partners across the country, through innovative partnership working with their supply chain, clients and residents, they are able to create job opportunities for local people.

“It’s being almost franchised across the country,” says awards judge Stephen Nicol, managing director of consultancy Regeneris. “The regeneration field is pretty rubbish at learning lessons and sharing best practice, but this is something others can really learn from.”

Through the organisations commitment to tackling worklessness, increasing local people’s skills levels, encouraging SME’s to develop and attracting investment, Fusion21 have been able to develop a model that helps unemployed people find work amongst their extensive supply chain.

As part of the extensive judging criteria Fusion21 had to demonstrate how their model was original, replicable, value for money, able to deliver long lasting impact and demonstrate its clear benefit to local communities.

Stephen Nicol, managing director of consultancy Regeneris says: “There are other housing associations and bodies that dabble around the edges of local procurement and sourcing but Fusion21 has taken it a step further and developed a really robust system that delivers results.”

Chris Murray, Chair of Fusion21 said of the achievement, ““This is another fantastic win for Fusion21 and we’re grateful to the Regeneration and Renewal National Awards for recognising the importance of what we do, not just for Merseyside, but increasingly across the whole country. 

 It’s a real endorsement of the hard work that everyone puts into making Fusion21 a success – we’ve got a great staff team and Board – but it’s also a ringing endorsement of the model that we operate, where all the value created goes back into training and employment outcomes.”

He further added, “We hope that more and more people will use this model, which will generate more training and employment outcomes.  It’s much needed at the moment, and that’s what we are here to do.”