Filming in his living room isn't a normal Wednesday morning activity, but last week John - a BCHA tenant - invited the comms team in for a cuppa to get some footage captured.
BCHA is constantly looking for opportunities to test or expand new customer led initiatives. Often the challenge is securing funding to deliver these safely and effectively. But we have a tenacious group of customers pushing us to find solutions.
When a small funding opportunity was identified by BCHA staff, we immediately knew what to put forward thanks to a recent Customer Reference Panel meeting and ongoing engagement with our tenants.
Anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a common problem for many tenants. Often it starts with relatively small matters. In recent customer reference panels, we've been talking about how this could sometimes be avoided by early interventions. A mechanism to identify issues that could result in confrontation or ASB.
One of our blocks had been struggling with bickering between residents. By forming a neighbourhood network where they could discuss the issues, the bickering died down. And the community came together when faced with larger external challenges.
BCHA customers shared their experiences with us and asked if we could help support the creation of more community networks. To do it right, we knew we’d need extra funding—so we started looking. When a promising opportunity came up, we pulled together a funding application and decided a short video would help bring the idea to life. John kindly volunteered to share his story, highlighting the issue and showcasing this customer-led initiative: Neighbourhood Networks.
And that’s how, on a sunny Wednesday morning, we found ourselves filming John as he shared his experience of moving into a BCHA block and the organic development of a Neighbourhood Network.
We're keeping our fingers crossed that we are successful with our funding bid. But either way we will continue supporting Neighbourhood Networks to emerge and we will continue to involve customers in the design, development and delivery of new funding opportunities.
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