It’s four years since we launched our community resilience strategy, aka ‘Empowering our Communities’.
The aim? To create engaged, thriving and empowered places where people want to live.
Over those four years, we’ve been working with our strategic partners – councils, businesses, police, VCSE organisations and more – and we've engaged with more than 8,000 residents.
We've delivered all kinds of physical and social improvement projects, while taking a targeted, place-based approach in our designated ‘Locality Areas’ – these are areas that need more help to bring about positive change.
Here are 10 ways in which we’ve supported our communities so far:
1. We’ve rallied more than 3,800 volunteers to support activities across our communities, including kids’ clubs, boxing sessions and litter picks.
2. We’ve helped put £1.35million into people’s pockets through activities such as reducing weekly outgoings, grants, benefits entitlement support, and helping people into employment.
3. We’ve attracted £3.5million of grants into our communities, which has funded things like community safety and arts projects.
4. We’ve delivered £1.7million of targeted estate improvements, from alley gates and fences to planters and parking bays.
5. We’ve received £250,000 in match funding towards community priorities, including the installation of CCTV cameras and improvements to improving community facilities.
6. We’ve worked with our contractors to deliver over £60million of social value – it’s seen contractors refurbish community centres, provide school play equipment and more.
7. We’ve invested £400,000 in supporting community partners to kick start youth provision, help people access affordable food, deliver wellbeing activities and more.
8. We’ve reduced tenancy turnover in four of our Locality Areas and will be considering where we focus our attention next.
9. We’ve supported the Stockton-on-Tees food hubs operation, ‘The Bread and Butter Thing’, which has helped local people save £500,000 on food costs since launching in 2023.
10. We’ve helped bring about behavioural and cultural change, in one instance we worked with a community to end a regular unauthorised bonfire that had become dangerous.
Of course, we know there’s lots more to be done! Look out for our refreshed community resilience strategy in the coming months.
