A FORMER homeless man from Worcester who set up his own landscaping businesses has been short-listed for a national award.

Ashley Green’s achievements will be recognised at the national homelessness charity Crisis Changing Lives awards ceremony later today.

The 22-year-old has been nominated for the award in the business category in recognition for his success in overcoming a traumatic childhood, unemployment and homelessness.

Just before leaving home, Mr Green, of Somerville Road, Tolladine, started to work for a friend who did landscape gardening. It was with him that he discovered his passion for gardening and design.

When the job ended, he found himself flitting between various jobs. At that point he had left home and was renting a flat.

After losing a number of jobs Mr Green then also lost his flat and was made homeless He said: “Finding myself homeless and jobless was certainly my lowest ebb. I thought, ‘I want more from life than this. I’m not going to settle and I’m certainly going to get myself out of the situation I’m in.”

Mr Green contacted LearnDirect to find out more about landscape gardening and that proved to be a turning point.

It led him to address his housing situation and a call to Worcester’s housing and benefits office led to him being assigned a support worker.

With his help, Mr Green got onto a SmartMove scheme that paid the rental guarantee for his first flat.

After applying for a Crisis Changing Lives grant, supported by Barclays, he was able to buy vital tools and complete a national diploma in horticulture.

He now runs his own landscaping business.

He said: “I would urge anyone who was in any of the situations I was in to go for these schemes, but you have to want it yourself.

“I love making things look prettier than they are, even if it’s just mowing a lawn and doing a good job.

“As corny as it sounds, when I did that first landscaping job I knew right then that’s what I wanted to do and that’s what I wanted to be.”

The awards, being held at Barclays headquarters in Canary Wharf, London, will be presented by ITN’s chief economics editor Daisy McAndrew.

Sarah Thompson, Barclays Worcester town centre branch manager, said: “Ashley is an inspiration to others in the way he has turned his life around.”