Bron Afon Community Housing Barbara Castle Director of Community Investment and Involvement

Bron Afon Community Housing

Barbara CastleDirector of Community Investment and Involvement

• Stock transfer• Stock size• Land portfolio• In-house resources

Overview

The Vision

• Bron Afon’s values:• ..........• Involves people in decisions that affect them• Has sustainability at the heart of its thinking• Is proud to be a non-profit making social

business delivering a public service

Whole Processes – Community Investment and Involvement

• Creation of ‘Community Team’ a virtual team led by the Community Housing Officer

• Longterm engagement with communities• Community development approach• Supporting independence and resilience• Developing enterprise outcomes

Internal Processes

• Creation of sustainability officer post• Development of internal champions network• Good practice forums and intranet• Work on Sustainability Strategy• Green Futures programme re-open space

• Environmental mapping process to identify starting point for dialogue

• Major Community Involvement exercises• Consultation cycle• Delivery of WHQS plus – Main Works Programme• Communal shared spaces programme

Environmental Improvement Process Bron Afon’s Basic Approach

The Whole Organisation

• Green Dragon• 10:10• Small scale project involvement• The work of the Quality Design Forum

• Materials / processes/ contractors/ waste

• Research and networking

Conventional Outcomes

• How sustainable are they?• eg...homezones?• greenery and ‘bling’• maintenance and replicability• non-attributed spaces

Current ‘Pilots’• Recycling from site works• Solar street lighting• Vehicle fleet assessments• External land reconfiguration• Block enclosures• Working with young people• Energy loss reduction• Energy generation• Monitoring energy consumption

• Raise communities awareness of type of improvements that could be appropriate to a location as per environmental standard- posters, leaflets as part of consultation, encouraging communities to think outside the box

Conventional Approaches to Involvement

Sustainability

• Needs to deliver within budget• Need to add to the budget• Needs to be sustainable• Needs to overlay other engagement with

other issues – poverty; illiteracy; poor services etc

Green Futures

• The business plan for WHQS environmental works and related assets

• Taking time to consider the principles• 50 year timeframe• Programme for stakeholders• Future open space concerns

Green Futures

• Climate change• Sustainable Development and Bio-diversity• Sustainable Design – lighting, materials etc• Environmental justice and young people• Health and movement• Energy and generation• Skills and jobs• Ownership and development