Last week, we outlined our top dos and don’ts for housing associations looking to further embed social value into their daily operations. One piece of advice we gave was to look beyond individual homes and focus on the far bigger picture of social value. Namely, the creation, enhancement, and maintenance of aspirational communities.
Instead of putting roofs over beneficiaries’ heads and leaving it there, we think it’s critical for housing associations to take their responsibility for strengthening local areas seriously.
It’s time to look beyond bricks and mortar, instead focusing on how you can encourage better health and wellbeing, establish a stronger sense of community, and build resilient, empowered communities that can continue to add value to people long into the future.
Instead of putting roofs over beneficiaries’ heads and leaving it there, we think it’s critical for housing associations to take their responsibility for strengthening local areas seriously.
Improve quality of life
A large part of social value for housing associations is about creating communities in which people want to live and spend their time. Local areas that cover every need, providing access to all the necessary services and resources, and promoting greater wellbeing and satisfaction.
Consider this definition of placemaking:
“With community-based participation at its center, an effective placemaking process capitalises on a local community’s assets, inspiration, and potential, and it results in the creation of quality public spaces that contribute to people’s health, happiness, and wellbeing.”
How can you instill the core facets of placemaking into your approach? Move beyond individual homes and take the larger view of the local area you’re contributing towards. Harness your planning and design process to promote greater engagement within a community and encourage better health and prosperity.
You could improve access to healthcare, education, and public green space. Or you could bolster local economies by supporting local businesses and charitable organisations. This wider view of quality of life and beneficiary satisfaction is essential.
Engage and empower the community
Critical to building aspirational communities and creating social value is listening to the community itself. At every given opportunity, we should be engaging with them to better understand their assets, challenges, goals, and needs. Otherwise, HAs run the risk of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach to what are very individual and uniquely demanding projects and areas.
As well as this, when delivering social value, housing associations must take into account the role they can play in bolstering communities outside of their direct services. For example, through the support of local economies and sectors, housing providers can significantly improve the resilience of their local areas.
Look after the environment
This one’s relatively self-explanatory. As well as individual lives and community wellbeing, housing providers have an obligation to do their part to protect the local environment and reduce the impacts of climate change.
Whether this is through the reduction of negative impacts during development, demanding greater accountability from suppliers, or running initiatives and activities to engage local beneficiaries and businesses in combating climate change, looking after the environment is paramount.
Future-proofing
The work of housing providers isn’t just here and now. It’s equally important to ensure resilience and longevity of the communities you’re helping long-term.
This might include providing housing that is fit-for-purpose and in line with changing climate change legislation. Prioritising accessibility and variety of housing ownership during the planning process to better meet burgeoning demand. Or developing services and activities that fit with the long-term goals and aims of the community.
Again, this step requires ongoing communication and engagement with the people involved in order to respond to unique local needs. How can you undergo projects now to continue to build the resilience of a community long-term?
Adjusting your approach
A robust approach to social value measurement and reporting is how you can make sure you’re actually delivering the social value you’ve set out to create. It also increases accountability across developers and suppliers, keeping them motivated to uphold commitments made during planning or procurement.
A standardised measurement system can also be beneficial by enabling your organisation to take stock of all the places you’re already adding value, and perhaps not yet capturing relevant data, as well as identifying areas where opportunities for value might currently be being missed/overlooked.
As a housing provider, you’ll already be achieving so much social good. It’s important you’re readily able to demonstrate and evidence all the successes to date, and all future value you will generate.
The work of housing providers is valuable and multi-faceted, so far exceeding any individual home or project. Taking this larger, community-level view of your impact can be crucial to maximising your impact generation and truly evidencing your value to investors and stakeholders. There’s no understating the importance of building resilient, aspirational communities when it comes to social housing.
Need help demonstrating your social value commitment? Want to capture data to inform decision making and investment decisions? Impact can help. To find out more about our easy-to-use system for all things social value, schedule a demo, or get in touch on 0161 532 4752.