#housingdiversityday On Monday 19th March Housing Diversity Network (HDN) held the first #housingdiversityday social media campaign.  We are particularly grateful to Ben and Jane from Tower Hamlets Housing, a HDN member, who provided the energy and expertise in making this happen. Both 24Housing and Inside Housing partnered with us in this campaign. The momentum of activity built quickly with a mood amongst participants becoming joint owners of the campaign inviting their contacts to get involved.  It wasn’t too surprising that the analytics at the end of the day revealed #housingdiversityday was very successful.  At its peak we were trending as [...]

We seek enthusiastic, exceptional individuals to become mentors who want to build their own skills in particular in coaching and mentoring and want to share their knowledge and experience of working in housing to develop and support staff in the sector. We seek staff who wish to become mentees, who are ready to take advantage of this unique opportunity to be accelerated in their personal development and be supported by mentors to overcome barriers to their progression in the workplace.  “I think the programme was excellent. It covered a huge variety of subjects and was a valuable experience being able [...]

As government figures show race inequalities in housing, Sallie Bridgen reflects on what housing providers can do to tackle the problem What do this week’s hate crime figures and last week’s government figures on ethnicity mean for housing? The news that hate crime has increased by 29% in 2016 – with spikes after the vote to leave the European Union and the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack – comes close on the heels of the damning information on inequality published in last week’s Ethnicity Facts and Figures. Both should be of grave concern to those of us committed to a fairer [...]

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Raj Patel as HDN’s new CEO, who will be joining us on 15 November 2017. Raj co-founded Ashram Housing in Birmingham, and has worked in equality and diversity for more than a quarter of a century, leading organisations and consultancies in UK, Asia, Africa and Latin America. He brings a wealth of experience and expertise in equality, diversity and inclusion, and in leadership. Raj Patel new CEO said: 'We find ourselves in a time when the need for equality, diversity and inclusion is critical for the housing sector and the nation. The role [...]

  Throughout my own career I’ve had the benefit of some great mentors and role models who’ve helped me (I’ve been in management positions for  over 30 years – even I find that hard to believe). Those mentors provided me with a fountain of knowledge and contacts as well as sharing their own mistakes and challenges, so I could learn from them. It’s really helped me as I‘ve progressed in my career. It was great they showed their ‘human’ side – and I discovered making mistakes and not knowing everything was fine because you can learn, and you can also [...]

Theresa May said of the new ‘Ethnic disparity audit’, "…People who have lived with discrimination don't need a government audit to make them aware of the scale of the challenge…”.  While the audit doesn’t provide any new information, we welcome the Government shining a light on the appalling levels of inequality in our society, and committing to action. In the area of housing alone, the audit data reinforces what we know – that ethnic minority households are more likely to be living in fuel poverty, damp or overcrowded housing than White British households and, despite the myths, are less likely to [...]

Last week I shared my first blog about the HDN Mentees Programme. This week I thought I’d share my experience of the classroom sessions we completed. This may be beneficial for those who’ve applied for this year’s programme and anyone who has wondered what’s included in the sessions. I’ll also be adding links to some of the tools we used so that if you’re not on the programme this year, you can see what they look like and maybe even use them yourself. Classroom Sessions The classroom sessions are a great opportunity not only to learn but also to network with [...]

  Now that this year’s HDN Mentees Programme has completed I thought it might be worth sharing my experience of the course, so I’m going to post a couple of blogs about it. This may be beneficial for those who’ve applied for this year’s programme and anyone who has wondered what having a mentor is like. I joined Barnet Homes in August 2010 not knowing anything about housing, literally nothing. I had previously worked in banking and having left that industry in the February of that year, by the August, I really needed a job! I signed up to a recruitment [...]

                                                                                                                                    An email popped up in my inbox from HDN offering Mentor and Mentee places on their programme. I considered both for a while and then decided because of my successful journey that I’ve experienced whilst working in housing.I had no idea what I was letting myself in for...I filled in the form, sold my soul and hoped for the best. I had previously undertaken some coaching sessions being the coach in my current work place and knew mentoring was on a similar scale. All I knew if I was successful I would be matched with a stranger who worked [...]

What the HDN Mentoring programme means to me As I look forward to competing as one of the three finalists of this year’s Inside Housing/CIH Rising Stars competition, I wanted to shout about how HDN’s mentoring programme and my mentor, John Ghader (Chief Executive of Prima Group, formerly Pierhead Housing) have helped me to achieve my goals. I set out on the programme in 2016 with two main objectives – to get better at networking, and to improve my confidence and assertiveness. I had a great role as Corporate Strategy Officer, but was still finding my feet after a previous experience [...]