About Tenant Participation Support

About Us

 

As a social housing professional, you want to make sure tenants are at the heart of your work; after all, there would be no business without them!

 

You want to find ways to engage tenants that are effective and meaningful for both them and for your organisation. And you want to ensure everyone in the business sees the value and the importance of including tenants in decisions which affect them.

 

We know that it takes a real investment, in time and staff, to talk to tenants and get them to talk to you. It should be a core part of everyone's job, but the responsibility often falls to one or two people in a busy team. We can help.

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Supporting Communities works with large and small housing providers who want to step up their tenant engagement and put effective tenant participation practices into effect. We offer a range of services customised to you and your organisation to ensure you find the right approach for your tenants and your business. 

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Our Story 

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Supporting Communities is an independent charitable organisation that has worked for more than 40 years to equip communities in Northern Ireland with the means to have a voice in their housing and other local services. The charity established Empowering Communities in 2017 as a trading subsidiary, allowing us to provide our years of experience in community engagement and participation, quality training, advice and support to the wider housing sector.

 

We believe that tenants hold the key to the success of their social housing providers. We know how to support your organisation to unlock their potential by engaging in a valuable and meaningful way for everyone involved, leading to improved services, better relationships, and happier staff! 

 

As the Independent Tenant Organisation (ITO) for Northern Ireland, we developed guidance in line with the Department of Communities' Tenant Participation Strategy for NI 2015-2020.  Now, Supporting Communities is playing an instrumental part in the consultation for the strategy's new iteration.

 

We have introduced an assessment framework designed to provide social landlords with an objective measure of their tenant participation activities through three standardised accreditation levels.  

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Become A Member

 

Membership affords you access to useful and practical information, training, and personalised support to enable you to develop effective community engagement and participation solutions.

As a member, you will be able to access many free or discounted services.

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Learn more about our Membership offer.

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