Community Investment Services | Communities

Community Investment Support

HACT have long been champions and contributors to the vital work social housing organisations do alongside people and communities to help them thrive.

As local anchor organisations, social investors and custodians of community spaces, housing associations are uniquely placed to support individuals and communities through a wide range of programmes, services and initiatives. For over 60 years HACT has been working with the sector, and a wide range of partners, to support the development and delivery of this work.

We believe passionately about the work housing associations do for, and with, communities. That’s why we came together with the sector to create The Centre for Excellence as a platform to build collaboration, share good practice, grow the evidence base and accelerate investment in this vital work.

With expertise spanning employment, health, financial inclusion, resident involvement, fundraising and programme development, let’s see how we can help.

How we can help

Strategy Development

What does community or social investment mean to your organisation?

Our team of specialists can support you in creating the right strategy for your community work and delivering an organisation-wide approach to community investment tailored to your community priorities and aspirations.

Community Needs Assessment

How connected are you to issues and opportunities in your areas?

As part of our community research offer we have the tools and expertise to help you to identify local issues and priorities and to pinpoint key partners and collaboration opportunities across any designated area. Supporting you to maximise your investment in communities.

Community Investment Health check

How do your community activities compare to others?

Thanks to our many networks and collaborations we have a thorough understanding of good and emerging practice in community investment across the sector. We can work with you and your teams to review your existing delivery and to provide inspiration for the wider sector and beyond – providing you with a roadmap to improving your approach to community investment.

Evaluation & Learning Partner Services

How are your community programmes performing?

Whether you are looking to develop an evaluation approach for a new programme or would like to understand the social impact of your existing initiatives our team of experienced social researchers can support you to capture and report on the impact of your work, as well as making recommendations for improving future provision.

Community engagement

How involved are residents in shaping your community activities?

Good community investment involves community members in every stage of designing, delivering and evaluating a programme or service. Our communities team can support you to conduct community research and increase your capacity to co-design activities with residents and local partners.

Bespoke training

Are your teams up to speed with best practice in community investment?

The voluntary and community sector is constantly evolving, to ensure your teams have a good understanding of emerging issues, opportunities and good practice we can work with you to design and deliver training programmes aligned to your community priorities.

Community Investment Health Check

Use our free tool to understand how can you maximise the impact of your community investment budget.

A good starting point for designing or refining your community investment strategy is to explore how well community investment is understood and aligned across your organisation.

Accessed via HACT’s online platform’s digital channel, the free health check tool takes you through a series of simple questions so you can gain an understanding of your organisation’s current view and, based on your responses, produces an action plan to help you take the next step in the right direction.

Take a look

Read about our community investment work across the sector

Breathing Space: An evaluation of Orbit’s mental health programme

Breathing Space is a mental health service run by Orbit. It was established in April 2017, with the purpose of supporting Orbit customers to achieve positive improvements in their mental health.

Earn It, Don't Burn It: An evaluation of Orbit's financial support programme

In May 2020 HACT undertook a short but intense engagement with A2Dominion staff, partners and customers to review its response to the challenges of Covid-19.

All About You: a retrospective review

Cotman Housing asked HACT to evaluate their All About You project, which aimed to support carers of people with dementia to be more physically active.

Centre for Excellence in Community Investment

The Centre for Excellence in Community Investment was established in 2018 to champion and celebrate the role of community investment across the UK.

It provides a mechanism for community investment professionals to share and develop their practice, through a series of regional and thematic networks, covering issues including racial equality, young people, ageing communities and community centres.

Find out about our Centre

Age Friendly Social Housing Programme

Our newly established Age Friendly networks will facilitate joined-up thinking and working between social landlords and their partners around their activities and services for over 50s in the three localities, allowing us to pool resources and move from individual to collective action.

The networks will work alongside residents to create new activities and services for over 50s and enhance existing age friendly provision within each area, testing new approaches to tackle social isolation and loneliness.

Learn more