Published: Saturday, 6th March, 2010 1:00pm

Disadvantaged families to get more help in borough

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DISADVANTAGED families are to get more help thanks to extra new funding.

The Royal Borough alongside Windsor Housing will receive £25,000 for Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) in the area.

FIPs work with the most challenged families to help end cycles of anti-social behaviour, drug and alcohol misuse as well as behavioural problems and poverty.

Windsor Housing, part of Radian, has been involved with FIPs across the borough since September and has already seen positive changes in families receiving support.

The money is from a Government pot of £2.6m set aside for projects nationally.

Windsor's FIP workers spend around eight hours a week with each family they help.

Many of these families will be faced with tenancy breaches that put their home at risk and are often involved in persistent anti-social behaviour, long-standing poverty and sustained unemployment.

In a joint statement, the successful applicants said: 'Windsor Housing and its partners the Royal Borough are pleased that the joint application for the Housing Challenge Fund has been accepted.

"This is an exciting and rewarding partnership to be involved with and will benefit all the community.The project confronts and support parents and children to help them change their behaviour, and prevention is the best way to stop problems with families escalating and affecting their neighbours and communities.

Windsor Housing recognised the impact on families across the borough and was keen to develop the partnership, appreciating that some families living within their properties need more support in their tenancies.

'The partners' aim is to prevent homelessness, reduce anti-social behaviour and to engage the families in positive activities within their communities.'