Lucy Grove, Director of Strategic Communications and Campaigns at the National Housing Federation explains why we’ll be doing things a little differently this year.
Supported housing is one of the five key priorities in our plan for economic and social recovery, and through this work we’re calling for the long-term funding and stability supported housing needs for the future.
Alongside pushing these specific policy measures, we also know it’s vital to tell the story of supported housing and the difference it makes to so many lives. So we we’re planning to make supported housing a main feature of our new campaign, Homes at the Heart.
Homes at the Heart will build cross-party consensus that social housing needs to be at the heart of the government’s plans for getting the country back on track. The campaign, which we’re delivering together with more than 60 partners and supporter organisations, will highlight the social and economic benefits of investing in social housing and support for people to live well. And it will celebrate everything social homes and support bring to families and communities across the country.
Just as sheltered and supported housing is central to our policy influencing, sheltered and supported housing will be central to this campaign. We want to shout from the rooftops about the incredible work your organisations deliver and thank your teams for everything they are doing during this unprecedented crisis.
To do that, we have decided to pause Starts at Home Day this year so that we can dedicate a full week of campaigning action to celebrating sheltered and supported housing.
From 24 August – when we would usually be running Starts at Home Day – we’ll run Homes at the Heart of Living Well, a themed week to build politicians’ and policy makers’ understanding of what your organisations do.
We will support you to do many of the same things you usually would for Starts at Home Day but in a different way, like virtual MP visits, toolkits, online case studies and more. We’ll run social media activity, comment pieces and audio and visual content across five days of campaigning.
We will be in touch later this month with more information about the week of action. In the meantime, find out how you can support Homes at the Heart.