Genesis Community's Voice of Young People has once again been recognised for its outstanding contribution to the London community.

The "Spotlight's on us" project, directed by 12 young people between the ages of 13 and 22 from Brent, has been short-listed in the upcoming Annual Black & Minority Ethnic Social Housing Awards in the 'Outstanding Community Project for Young People' category.

The "Spotlight's on us" project involved the creation of a hard-hitting documentary focusing on the issues that effect young people, including ASBO's, homelessness, education, racism and human rights.

Key figures interviewed in the documentary included Hazel Blears, Minister of State for Crime, Security and Communities; Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty and Roger Graef, criminologist and award winning documentary maker.

The unique project received nothing but praise and positive feedback from media, and organisations alike after its official launch in November 2005, with nearly 1,000 requests for copies of the DVD documentary.

Head of Genesis Community & Regeneration, Iain MacKechnie-Jarvis said, "We are so proud to receive more recognition for this project.

The young people involved worked incredibly hard on this documentary and being a finalist in these awards is a huge credit to them.

These awards, run by the Federation of Black Housing Organisation, help identify areas of excellence in social housing and contributions to the community and Genesis Housing Group is honoured to have been short-listed."

The documentary has also won the Peter Duffy Award at the Liberty, Justice and Law Society Human Rights Awards in December 2005 and saw its way to Parliament in February 2006.

The winner of the award will be announced at a presentation on Friday 30 March.

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Notes to editors

Genesis Community

Genesis Community is a new charitable foundation that was set up to tackle the challenges of deprivation and social exclusion in disadvantaged areas. Although it was only launched in 2005, it builds on a strong track record of community initiatives and regeneration set down by Genesis.

Genesis Housing Group provides homes and services to tens of thousands of people across London and the south east. The Group consists of PCHA, Pathmeads and Springboard housing associations. We also have in our group a charitable foundation, Genesis Community. We are one of the largest and most successful housing groups in the UK, owning and/or managing more than 40,000 homes. Our overiding aim is to put customers first and provide excellent service to all.

For more information please contact:
Carly Dengate, Marketing, Press & PR Officer, Genesis Housing Group
020 8150 4984 or carly.dengate@ghg.org.uk