Grow your own community John Hood, managing director, Civica Housing Housing associations are under tremendous

pressure to deliver more with fewer resources available, especially as Universal Credit will radically alter the way associations support their tenants. To effectively address the changing needs of residents, who require services tailored to their community rather than a blanket approach, there needs to be greater collaboration and community engagement with local agencies and charities. To support this renewed tenant-focused approach, housing organisations will be expecting more from partners in their locality. They not only want to do more with less, but more importantly add value to their service delivery and help tenants more effectively. Addressing this agenda may take different forms, but Civica is already developing ways to work more closely with other local agencies to provide a common and joined up approach to dealing with the community. For instance, we will be attending the upcoming South London Jobs Fair which is dedicated to helping unemployed tenants. The event seeks to further engage with local neighbourhoods by giving something back to the community with apprenticeships, work shadowing, sponsored training and internships to individuals in need. To really make a difference, housing associations need to better understand their tenants needs to effectively allocate resources and services. For instance, technology can enable the ability to profile tenants, especially with the growing use of SMS as a communication channel. The next challenge will be how housing associations will adapt to social networking and use this to deliver joined up services. The opportunity to develop a community spirit will require more than top-down programmes of change. It will demand real engagement with the grassroots of the local neighbourhood. In a current project to further support the basic community needs, Civica is looking to sponsor allotments for the disabled and elderly in Liverpool. This will not only foster relationships with the local people, but also provides an opportunity for individuals in need to take ownership and support themselves. It is no longer about simply improving services for tenants, but it is about engaging with tenants in order to deliver service excellence and enhance the community. Building a neighbourhood mentality will have a longer term and more positive effect than monolithic programmes of change.