Working with the community

Connecting with young people often works best as part of wider community activities, making your staff and organisation a trusted resource.

It’s easier to talk about housing as a career when young people already know who you are and the beneficial impact your organisation has in the local area.

  • What are you already doing to engage at a community level?

  • Can you integrate discussions about housing as a career option into what you’re doing locally? For example, working with primary and other school pupils on litter pick-ups, organising nature activities, setting up Youth Advisory Panels etc.

  • If your organisation isn’t community based, can you work with the community and young people/schools in areas where you have more housing stock?

Cassiltoun Housing Association’s Youth Advisory Panel

A key component of Cassiltoun Housing Association’s active community development programme, its Youth Advisory Panel meets up every week, along with a member of the Community Team, to plan and organise events and projects for the local community, as well as to advise the association on what it could be doing better.

Made up of 14-25 year-olds, Cassiltoun’s Youth Advisory Panel helps to ensure that the voices, opinions and needs of young people in Castlemilk are heard and responded to.

Elderpark Housing Association’s Junior Community Voice Initiative

A textbook example of how to get youngsters working with their local housing association, ‘Junior Community Voice’ is a pioneering schools project from Elderpark Housing.

The brainchild of Jonathan Giddings-Reid, Elderpark’s community regeneration officer, the initiative involves two Govan schools – St Saviour’s and Riverside primaries – and encourages young people to be ‘Junior Community Voice Champions’.

“The aim is to create a conversation led by young people about what community is and how we can all influence what happens in our communities,” says Jonathan. “It’s essential that the voices and needs of young people are listened to and acted upon.”

A crucial part of the association’s tenant engagement work, Elderpark’s Junior Community Voice initiative won a Best Practice in Developing Community Award at 2023’s TPAS Scotland National Good Practice Awards.