What do we mean by Community Involvement?
Community Involvement is about directly involving our tenants, residents and leaseholders in the everyday issues that affect them. It involves research, consultation and participation of a whole range of stakeholders.
Engaging, enabling and empowering our communities has been at the core of what we do as an organisation and we will continue to play our role in developing the capacity of our communities to make improvements in their estates whether it be social, environmental or economic.
Tenant participation and community involvement is embedded in the way the Housing Executive delivers services. We are committed to ensuring we engage with our customers in a way that suits them.
The community involvement framework involves connecting with community representatives, tenants, residents and leaseholders through our various Housing Community Network (HCN) forums. Such as the Central Housing Forum, Regional HCN’s, Area HCN’s and also our hard to reach groups.
The Community Involvement Strategy provides a framework through the Housing Community Network for the Housing Executive and our communities to work together towards mutually agreed outcomes. It sets out how residents, along with their local community associations, can get involved in developing their local services to improve their quality of life.
We believe that more involved communities are better informed, can contribute to better decision-making, help improve services and standards locally and develop their own skills and opportunities.
How do we enable our communities to become involved?
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Allowing the use of rent abated community lets
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Providing training courses
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Providing out of pocket expenses for HCN Members to attend meetings
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We help our communities to secure funding under programmes such as: Community Grants Programme, Community Safety, Community Cohesion and Social enterprise grant awards.
The strategy has been developed in partnership with the Central Housing Forum (CHF) as well as the Housing Community Network (HCN) so that the actions contained within it reflect the communities’ aspirations and support. It sets out opportunities for involvement, emerging issues along with an agreed “Action Plan” outlining the key themes and priorities for the next five years.
If you would like more information about a Housing Community Network near you, please get in touch with your local office.
