How can we, as a housing sector, 'tell our story better'?
Stuart Ropke, CHC’s Chief Executive, has been selected as an Inside Housing 50 columnist for 2017.
You can read Stuart’s first article in full on the Inside Housing website (http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/debate/how-can-we-tell-our-story-better/7019148.article) but here’s a taster…
‘At the very moment I’m writing this blog, I can almost guarantee that someone, somewhere, working in a housing organisation will say “We have to tell our story better”. It’s a line that I’ve uttered many times myself.
It is a housing shibboleth for the ages. The belief that, as organisations providing housing solutions for some of the most vulnerable in our society, who have increasingly taken on wider roles as community investors and place-makers and shapers, we are operating for societal good. And if only more people, particularly those who shape and influence our world, knew what a contribution we make to the economy, to supporting people and communities, that they would entrust and empower us to save if not the world, at least the local community.
Of course, all that makes sense. We know that stories are seductive, especially those which illustrate the change that a safe, secure, affordable home and accompanying support can make to those individuals who would otherwise have been homeless, workless and with poor life prospects. The additional benefit of the savings made to the public purse from that individual not requiring interventions from the health and other public services comes as the cherry on the top – the flourish on top of an already persuasive narrative.’
Read the rest of the article here. http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/debate/how-can-we-tell-our-story-better/7019148.article