Benefiting from learning with the community
Housing Association’s action learning brings benefits to the local community too
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Business Challenge
Housing associations play a vital role in managing the housing stocks for local communities. Our client needed to develop their management capability, at the same time they were keen to deliver on the organisation’s commitment to CSR and their goal of ‘building successful communities’. Was there a way of satisfying these goals jointly?
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Echelon’s Solution
We designed an innovative management development programme that contributed to the organisation’s CSR goals as an outcome of the organisation’s talent development. The Community Project Challenge (CPC) was a cross-organisation action learning project that profiled the organisation as a local employer of choice. It was facilitated by Echelon coaches and supported with a programme website containing materials mapped to Cert.M, a learning log and project management tools.
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Key Benefits
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The CPC programme consisted of a specific time-bound project of around three months that supported a key CSR goal whilst also developing its managers to acquire an accredited qualification.
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The programme supported a core aim of the Housing Association to become a local employer of choice by providing students with a structured work experience programme that attracted them to work with the Group and by providing helpful careers support to local schools.
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For a recently merged organisation it facilitated a learning group drawn from across the organisation and from different work groups and organisational levels thus supporting organisational integration and community awareness.
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The initiative Raised the organisation profile by winning a UK Housing Award – in the ‘Developing Skills and Capacity’ category – for helping selected Year 10 and 11 pupils at Droitwich Spa High School to develop skills, and gain nationally recognised qualifications in, property maintenance known as the ‘Skills for Life project.
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