Matt Kennedy looks forward to sessions on housing and young people at TAI 2018.
The housing profession and housing organisations have a strong track record of working with younger people out in their local community, providing support and resource that support vibrant community life. Our Welsh Housing Awards in recent years has increasingly reflected the excellent work taking place in this area. The Shaftesbury Youf Gang, a collaboration between Newport City Homes, Newport City Council, Gwent Police and Energize Media, is just one great example from the most recent awards.
This kind of project, along with the increasingly prominent talk of how housing management practice is being and could be shaped by an understanding of Adverse Childhood Experiences, reflects the potential for housing professionals to have a huge impact on the wellbeing of children and young people. Given the level of resource many organisations aim at this area, it clearly isn’t a responsibility taken lightly.
At this year’s TAI we’ve put a real spotlight and focus on this kind of work and we’ll hear from head teacher of the year Mark Thompson. Mark will share his own views on what it takes for education to get it right for children from a variety of backgrounds, building links with the local community and leading change within an under-pressure staff team.
The programme is peppered with ways the sector does and can learn from these kinds of approaches and adopt practice that will really make a different. Youth homelessness, supporting ex-offenders and tenant democracy are key features of the programme and demonstrate the role of the sector in not only supporting younger people, but also in getting them positively involved in housing delivery/community development.
Additionally this year’s WHQ debate focuses on the case for and against universal basic income. At a time when talk of the fourth industrial revolution is being highlighted as a threat to traditionally large scale employment in areas like manufacturing – getting a handle on what this means for the future of work, and the prospects of many younger people within society is vital.
Not only does this have clear implications to how people afford to rent or own a home, but more directly on routes into employment, re-shaping the education system/curriculum and how well set-up we are across public services to help younger people realise and achieve their ambitions.
Social housing and the broader housing sector moves at such a fast pace, post-CIH careers week where so many people shared their insightful stories of what a career in housing had given them, it is clear that we have the people, opportunities and passion to really sell a career working in housing. Presenting it as a real option for younger people, who through their own experiences, insight and understanding of the world have so much to give back and contribute to the continuing prosperity of the profession.
Matt Kennedy is policy and public affairs manager at CIH Cymru