Local Social Sustainability

Meeting point Gottsunda

With “Meeting point Gottsunda”, Uppsalahem takes positive action to facilitate integration by creating meaningful activities for local youth, with emphasis on young children. The project also provides employment opportunities for young adults and teenagers living in the area. These employees and seasonal workers participate in the planning and operation of activities connected to the project.

As part of the objective to increase security, Uppsalahem also targets domestic violence by educating residents in the area in a concept called “Huskurage” (house courage). This concept enables safe neighbourhood intervention in case there is suspicion of domestic violence.

Supportive Cohousing

The main goal of this project is to build up a real social network that includes ATC, volunteers and tenants. The project is developed in cooperation with the Municipality of Turin. The guest stars of the Supportive Cohousing project are young volunteers that decide to relocate in the public housing neighbourhoods. The Province legislation gives them the chance of a rental reduction in exchange for at least 10 hours per week in volunteer actions dedicated to an intervention plan in favour of tenants.

Every action in the plan is evaluated by a working group made up of social service workers, ATC, local police, organizations and associations that manage the Supportive Cohousing project.

A seasoned partnership with Bolton Wanderers

As a result of the partnership, over the last three years, thousands of Bolton teenagers have benefitted from professional sports coaching, opportunities to gain qualifications and volunteering experiences. The partnership has also encouraged people to join Hoot credit union, an ethical and affordable way to borrow and save money.

Each season, the club dedicates a league fixture to our partnership. For these ‘community matches’, we issue 1,500 free tickets to customers engaged in our neighbourhood services.

Players and club ambassadors help us to distribute the tickets and they have visited some our community initiatives. These include the Storehouse Pantry, pictured overleaf, which is a ground breaking alternative to food banks that gives greater choice to more people in need of food assistance.

Hemkunskapen – Home Economics

The sole focus for us in Hemkunskapen is to ensure that we do our part in creating a good start for our tenants in their new host country, that they understand the standards and expectations that come with rental agreements and that they receive all pertinent information to the smallest detail to ensure they feel confident and competent in day to day living their new home.

Despite being in a business sector that is essentially about the physical leasing and maintenance of tangible product, we also recognize that an apartment is just an apartment standing as a shell but it becomes a home only when someone lives there. Believing firmly in the importance of social engagement with our tenants, we strive to create personable relationships. This is why Hemkunskapen works for the most part with face to face meetings, through visits at home, or meetings or gatherings within the local community, where we convey specifically tailored information designed to make the company/customer relationship as simple and positive as possible.

With each visit we take the tenant through all rights and obligations both from the individual and the company`s perspectives in in order to ensure a seamless experience for our tenants where they feel they can live in an harmonious balance with themselves and others in their local neighbourhood.

Für Potsdam – For Potsdam

ProPotsdam provided an amount of 15.000 € for the competition. 22 associations and other organisations applied in 2016. The submitted ideas and project descriptions were shown on the internet page www.fuer-potsdam.de for a period of about two months. During this period, applicants could promote themselves to collect as much as possible votes via the online platform.

The first price of about 5,000 € was won by the association RokkaZ e.V. with the project “Potsdam goes Orlando” which enabled young hip-hop dancers of the association to participate in the world championship in 2017 in the USA.

Staudenhof

The Staudenhof-building has community spaces where refugees can come together, practice their religion or native traditions. The project also integrates the existing community and invites people across the city.

The creation of “housing associations” in mature neighbourhoods is the first step towards a successful and seamless integration of refugees. Not only the concept itself but also the fact that all entities of the cooperation (artists, companies, associations, non-profit organizations, volunteers, neighbours, citizens, ect.) where part of the preparation-phase, the implementation and the transfer to additional locations, is unique to this project.

The rapid implementation of the project was only possible through dialogue-based, network-like cooperation and communication between all parties. It should serve as an example for projects that are equally based on administrative, political, business and civil-society processes complementing one another.

Winter celebrations and lights on Brantingstorg

By installing lights and organize various activities, the square changed into a vibrant and vivacious place where people felt safe. The light installation and the music which came with it lit up the square and made it difficult to pursue any illegal activity because there was something happening on every day.

An important part of making the project successful was to collaborate with local residents and actors. The police started to patrol the square more often which made their presence more visible. An ice hockey team came to teach children how to ice skate on a temporary ice rink. Local music schools performed and spread the holiday feeling.

Together, all the efforts and measures put in place eliminated the dangerous elements. Prior to this, residents and the people that work there felt unsafe and unwilling to walk nearby the square during the nightfall. The square changed into a welcoming and warm place for all community members to enjoy.

Les Copines au Foot

Although many clubs create structures adapted for youngsters, women’s football remains largely unnoticed. In this context, the project “Les Copines au Foot” allowed girls who are living in the social housing areas, to cross these barriers and taboos in order to discover this sport. They met girls of their own age, who are often from different backgrounds and cultures. They developed a sense of togetherness and to have a shared objective. They learnt by having fun to live in society and to cultivate the need for effort, which provides the basis for learning adult life.

Urban Development – DrottningH

During the same year (2011) the first drafts of DrottningH was developed with an aim of transforming the most deprived and socially strained neighborhood in Helsingborg into something completely new. Drottninghög was marked by a high crime rate and low sense of security and safety. It had a bad reputation and was plagued by social stigmatization and alienation. In approximately 25 years’ time, Drottninghög was to double in size and turn into a thriving area reflecting Helsingborgs growth as a whole – all the while focusing on social sustainability and its existing population.

DrottningH as a project is driven by the local municipality in close collaboration with Helsingborgshem. Collaboration and teamwork is crucial in dealing with such an objective and 7 years into the project we are working hard with improving the rate of employment, refurbishing, building new properties and transforming the neighborhood center. All in close collaboration with the municipality, private developers and local residents.

Holiday Kitchen

This positively responds to holiday risks which are most acute during the long summer breaks. Using a formula of learning, food and play for families when they need it most, Holiday Kitchen focuses support on three primary outcome areas:

• improving access to and experiences of good holiday nutrition;
• strengthening peer and family relationship;
• engaging families in inclusive educational play and physical activities.

As the Holiday Kitchen programme requires parents/carers to participate in activities with their children, emphasis is placed on supporting positive parental involvement in learning, supporting family wellbeing and parent confidence to support children beyond the programme – including school and nursery engagement.

Old Tree Nursery

Adults with learning disabilities and mental health issues can enjoy a number of crafts and skills as the nursery offers work experience opportunities and a place to spend time, make friends and learn new skills and experiences.

Community events for children and their families are run throughout the year and the facilities are hired for a range of educational and social events. The service is funded via a combination of commercial income, personal support payments, fundraising and grant income.

Apprentices’ Project

To involve our tenants and all the people living nearby, the project group decided to have a painting contest in schools and kindergartens in the area. The very best paintings should receive prizes and be shown on the surrounding walls of the garage courtyard. This should be done by a professional company.

The project group also hoped to prevent future graffiti spraying by these illustrations. After finishing all work the participating children, their parents and all neighbours are invited to the opening event. Event preparations, the opening party and effective PR work were also part of the project.

Wall of Fame

The project leader decided to involve the school and the Real Estate Owner Association, where AB Stångåstaden is a member, to see what kind of motivation could be found for these kids in order to engage themselves more in school and set good examples and role models. The collaboration has resulted in a grant in which all the winners will have their portrait installed on the newly created “Wall of fame” in school. The wall of fame will be a legacy for the school and the pupils get good role models and goals to strive to.

This project is innovative from 3 different aspects:

1. The project states a clear example that cooperation with entities outside our own groupings lead to innovative ways to solve problems. Here two different groups, the school and the Real Estate Owners Association get together, collaborate and change their focus from downpipe thinking to collaboration for the pupils future. In turn the students are encouraged to good study results and good behavior inside and outside school.

2. The pupils gain recognition, become role models and set god examples both in school and in the neighborhood. The good performance is premiered openly.

3. The idea and the creation of a “Wall of fame” in the school is a way to create

pride amongst the pupils for living in Skäggetorp and remind them, the teachers, the parents and people who come to visit the school hat good achievements are seen and granted.

Wanted

More specifically, our action aims to:

1. Inform the tenants of Vosgelis neighbourhoods in respect of the rules of cleanliness and good citizenship, with a light-hearted communication campaign and to make the “culprits” guilty.

2. Inform the general public about the position of Vosgelis: the fact that being unable to punish people does not imply that we are unable to react.

Indeed, Vosgelis by its status does not have the authority to apply the sanctions which are mentioned on the posters of this campaign. The main aim is not therefore to reduce incivilities substantially and quickly by repressive measures, but to discourage the “guilty” by making fun of them.

Our goal will be achieved if the tenants take ownership of the “portraits” we have created and use them to respect their neighborhoods. We believe that children can play an important role in this relay: “Hey dad! Look, it’s Pat the Pooh!”.

This is why Vosgelis constantly transmits a very sustained communication on the subject with various tools:

• image bank at the disposal of local employees so that they can compose their own posters according to the problems of their neighbourhoods;
• video spots on social networks;
• regular campaigns mixing posters in ours agencies and in the entrance halls of our properties, and pictures on social networks.

Crime prevention inspections

The project increases the awareness and the knowledge about security in residential buildings within Wiener Wohnen. The housing company receives professional recommendations from the crime prevention experts of the police for improving security.

• For the police and Wiener Wohnen: the district officers get information immediately about the residents` security concerns and fears. The responsible officers get the mobile number of the responsible account managers of Wiener Wohnen. Both organizations share their knowledge on local security issues. They regularly exchange ideas by communicating directly.
• For the tenants: the aim of the project is to combat “zones of fear” (areas, in which people feel unsafe) and to increase the quality of life of the residents.