Involving residents
At Sovereign we recognise that our residents are the best people to help us improve our services. All of our staff understand that our residents sit at the heart of our business and how we work.
We are committed to involving residents:
We want to introduce new and original ways of involving residents in shaping our future. Our aim is to go beyond the regulatory standard for resident involvement and engage residents with the business. This means that some of our residents are now working directly with us to help us continually improve our services and standards, and are involved with our future direction and planning. We have a number of ways in which residents can get involved with Sovereign:
Local involvement
At a local level, we provide numerous ways for our residents to be involved in their association and encourage them to shape and inform our services at all levels. We support resident groups to get together as a neighbourhood or interest group, and we provide them with practical support and advice. These groups are ideal in giving feedback on how to improve services. We help residents develop their personal skills by offering a range of training opportunities, including, ‘Developing community leaders’, ‘Being an effective Chair’, and ‘Seizing the opportunity’.
Sovereign Development Consortium
The Consortium is an alliance of 12 housing associations committed to reducing overheads, sharing expertise and delivering as many new homes as possible.
Members actively seek residents’ insights on matters such as home design and future housing developments. In August 2008, the Consortium gave 22 residents an opportunity to visit the BRE Global centre, which specialises in creating sustainable homes. Residents were able to ask experts about aspects of home building and their impact on the natural environment.
