Tara Hughes who has been shortlisted for a international award for her work with Cluid
By Finian Coghlan
A NEWBRDGE woman has been shortlisted for an international award for her work with social housing in the town.
Tara Hughes from Moorefield has been nominated by Cluid Housing – the largest housing association in Ireland, with whom she has been working for the last three years.
“Cluid nominated me, they gave in everything I did, and waited to get shortlisted for the final – and I did,” said Tara.
Tara has been included with three other nominees from Northern Ireland and the UK, and will discover the winner at a gala event in the Europa Hotel in Belfast on 25 March, hosted by the Chartered Institute of Housing.
“This award celebrates the outstanding achievements of housing professionals, committee members and tenants, who have used new approaches to help solve housing problems they see around them,” said her citation.
“We are looking for committed individuals who have used creative approaches to solve real-life housing issues they encounter, either in their workplace or within their community,” it said.
Cluid Housing is Dublin-based but has over 10,000 housing units in the State, and Tara looks after the 94 in the White Oak estate.
“There’d be more in Newbridge, but that’s just the estate I’m working in,” said Tara.
“I’m on the National Housing Advisory Group, and we started simply with a litter-pick around the estate, then started with a multi-cultural event which we now hold every year,” she said.
“Because of the Covid we had to learn to do it all outdoors, now all of our events are outdoors – come hail, rain or snow, – but we’ve been lucky with the weather,” she said.
Within the Cluid estate, there’d be several nationalities, and my job would be bringing them all together to create harmony in the estate,” she said.
“It gives the kids a childhood to look back on, and something to look forward to the next event,” said Tara.
“We have about 120 kids and they love it,” she said.
“We will be having a St Patrick’s Day parade on 18 March, and we have a Czech man dressing up as St Patrick!” she revealed.
“I’ve even been Mrs Claus and the Easter Bunny,” she chuckled.
