Mrs Vera Tama
Dear Mrs Vera Tama,
We are honoured and deeply appreciate your exceptional contribution and dedicated service to equality, justice, housing, and community development throughout your distinguished career in public service.
Following the findings in 1976 that the London Borough of Hackney operated policies and practices that discriminated against Black and ethnic minority communities in housing and employment, a programme was established by the Home Office under Section 11 of the 1976 Race Relations Act to eliminate those unlawful practices and promote equal opportunities within the borough.
As one of the specially recruited Race Relations Officers appointed in 1988, you played a pioneering and courageous role in transforming housing and recruitment practices across the borough. As a manager, you worked tirelessly to ensure fairness, accountability, and equality within council operations. Through your involvement on recruitment panels, you helped ensure that employment opportunities were offered fairly and without discrimination based on race, colour, sex, religion, or nationality. Your work opened doors for disadvantaged groups and helped create a more inclusive workforce within local government.
Your dedication also extended into housing policy and practice, where your efforts contributed significantly to Black and ethnic minority families being rehoused according to genuine need and priority rather than prejudice or inequality. Your leadership and determination helped reshape the culture of fairness within the borough and strengthened equal opportunities for countless residents.
In your subsequent role as a Homeless Persons’ Officer within Hackney, you continued to demonstrate professionalism, compassion, and integrity. Through careful assessments, home visits, detailed investigations, and fair recommendations under housing legislation, you ensured that homelessness applications were considered justly and without discrimination.
Your commitment to public service continued within the London Borough of Islington, where you served as a Housing Fraud Officer. Through your investigations and enforcement work, you helped recover fraudulently obtained properties so that homes could be made available to genuinely homeless individuals and families in need.
Beyond local government, your compassion and dedication extended into the care sector, where you worked with vulnerable children in care homes across Kent and London. In many lives, you became a guiding motherly and grandmotherly figure, restoring hope, confidence, and direction to young people facing significant challenges. Through your encouragement, care, and belief in their potential, many were inspired to pursue education, employment, and positive lives within society.
Your lifelong dedication to justice, equality, fairness, and human dignity has left a lasting and meaningful impact on individuals, families, and communities. Your work stands as an example of true public service, leadership, and compassion.
Now enjoying your well-earned retirement, you can look back with pride knowing that your contribution has helped transform lives and improve opportunities for future generations.
This Recognition Award is therefore presented in honour of your outstanding service, remarkable achievements, and unwavering commitment to creating a fairer and more compassionate society.
With deepest respect, gratitude, and admiration,
COORDINATOR OF GCLASS FOUNDATION