Community Investment Team aiming for greater collaboration

24 January 2020

The team responsible for community investment within Housing looking to increase collaboration with colleagues from other Council areas.

Managed by Farida Aslam and Rob Thompson, the team has a range of responsibilities, from looking after neighbourhoods to dealing with anti-social behaviour and overseeing the sheltered housing schemes.

But it is the community development element of their work that Farida believes can be strengthened by connecting people from across the Council that carry out similar tasks.

The community investment activity in housing may involve tackling social isolation, increasing employability and elements of regeneration, work that is often also undertaken by staff in Social Services, Learning and Skills and other departments.

Farida wants to bring this work together and is developing a new Community Investment Strategy that will increase efficiency by avoiding the duplication of tasks and provide a better service for residents.

“Our Community Investment work over the last four years has focused on community projects to help reduce social isolation, increase employability and improve the skills of our residents. We’ve done quite a lot on volunteering and community garden projects,” she said.

“One of the things I found was that we were doing so much great work, but when I spoke to staff in other departments of the Council, they weren’t actually aware that we were doing this stuff.

“In developing the new strategy, I was thinking that there are lots of different departments in the Council. If they were more aware of this, they could refer into our services. For example, how many staff in Social Services are dealing with residents who live in Council Housing that have basic skills needs, don’t have a job or are suffering from social isolation? Not everyone may be aware of the level of support we could provide these tenants and the level of intervention available.

“Social Services, the Youth Service and ourselves all do a lot of work in our communities with young people, but sometimes there may be a disconnect. 

“If we were working more closely together, we might be able to achieve better outcomes and, ultimately, we’re all aiming for the same thing. We need to work in a more collective and collaborative manner. We’re not always working as one Council and I think if we were, we’d be able to have greater impact.”

Farida moved to the Council last year following a spell working for a Local Authority in London.

She joins a team that includes Shani Payter, who leads on employability and skills development.

Shani runs a project called Opportunity Knocks, delivered in conjunction with the Council, Inspire to Work Team and Newydd Housing Association, and available to anyone looking for work in the Vale. 

Mark Ellis leads on all community development, focusing more recently on food poverty and is working very closely with our housing managers to deliver the Cleaner, Greener, Healthier and Connected neighbourhood programme.

Leanne Young works on the Finances, Skills and Futures project funded by the Department of Work and Pensions, helping those furthest removed from the labour market. This service is available for residents of the Vale on Universal Credit, or those looking to claim Universal Credit.  

Mark Faulkner is taking the Public Health Wales Timebanking Expansion Project  forward, which aims to reduce social isolation and support Vale Homes residents who are digitally excluded to get online.  

Amy Hilbert has been appointed from the kick-start scheme to support the team’s work in the St Luke’s and St Paul’s area of Penarth where the team have recently launched a food pod. 

There are also three tenant profilers on the team, also appointed through kick start. Kelly-Anne Mayor, Tamara Collard and Jonathan Howse collect tenant data and establish any support required. 

“The data that this team is collecting is going to be invaluable. It will allow us to make targeted referral for support to both internal and external departments,” said Farida. 

“We’ve recently been approached by some members of the Youth Service, who are looking at plots of land to make youth gardens and allotments.

“That’s one way in which we’re collaborating. Another way is in the Adult Learning and Skills department. We have our own employability and skills team so we’re really keen to collaborate to make sure we’re not duplicating.

“For example, currently there are discussions ongoing around the need for an Employment and Skills Network for staff and partners operating in this arena and we hope to launch this this year.   

“We’re also doing quite a lot of work on digital inclusion as are the Adult Education team so naturally we have joined forces with them and others to take forward the work of the Get Vale Online group. 

“We feel that our tenant-base is aware of what we’re doing, but to some extent our internal partners are not. The community investment work we do is also regarded as regeneration work, but we don’t necessarily do enough collaborative work with the regeneration department.”

That spell in the capital gave Farida an insight into how other Local Authority’s operate, one that she hopes will be useful in her new role.

“I was working for the Housing Team in the London Borough of Hounslow and pulling together their strategy for welfare reforms, poverty and financial exclusion,” she added.

“I was there just under two years and before that I always worked in the housing sector In Wales.

“I’m a Welsh native, but I wanted to work in England, I wanted to do a stint in a London borough to experience some of the challenges.“I did want to go across other London boroughs and learn some good practice, but my daughter had other ideas. 

“I went across the border thinking that maybe they were ahead of us, but what I found was that they weren’t.

“They had some real poverty challenges, real concerns relating to manpower. They are under a lot of stress, a lot of pressure and facing financial difficulties.

“If you compare it to the Vale, it’s a very different environment, but it was a real eyeopener and an experience that I’m sure will prove beneficial here.”

Farida’s team has created an infographic  to illustrate the success of the Community Investment strategy over the last four years.Anyone who thinks their department could benefit from collaborating on any element of this work is asked to make contact by completing this short survey.