First three months as a PlaceShapers board member
16 January 2025
A key driver for me in joining the board was my commitment to connect with like-minded people and organisations, to learn from them and share knowledge and good practice.
My first three months as a new board member with PlaceShapers have been enjoyable and inspiring. The warm welcome and support from the PlaceShapers team and fellow board members made my introduction smooth and enjoyable. It has been a great opportunity to get to know new colleagues and catch up with others.
The PlaceShapers strategic plan has three key themes: Communicate, Connect and Collaborate. So, I thought I’d use these titles for my three-month reflection.
Communicate
I was pleased to attend my first in-person PlaceShapers’ board meeting in December. Everyone in the room was totally engaged and the open and inclusive discussions with a genuine focus on community and social impact fostered a sense of unity and shared purpose. Importantly, we also had some fun! I honestly came out of this meeting feeling re-energised and enthusiastic.
We looked at the draft PlaceShapers Communication Strategy and what struck me most was the reach of PlaceShapers. Not only do we communicate well with our members but our reach and influence are impressive and extends to the Regulator, the Ombudsman, and ministers.
At this point we were also fine tuning our response to the government’s rent consultation. It embodies our PlaceShapers ethos of using data and insight from members to tell stories and talk about people and communities. It’s how we build influence, and I was delighted Greatwell Homes was one of our case studies, which I wrote about in Inside Housing.
For an organisation with three employees including its CEO, Catherine Ryder and a volunteer board, our reach and influence is something we can rightly be proud of.
Connect
At Greatwell Homes, we believe that everyone should live in a place they are proud to call home. This belief drives us to go beyond just building homes; we empower local communities to make sure they have the education, skills, wellbeing and other services they need to thrive. How we define and measure our social value in partnership with our customers and communities, is strongly aligned to that of PlaceShapers.
A key driver for me in joining the board was my commitment to connect with like-minded people and organisations, to learn from them and share knowledge and good practice. I am already excited to go on a study visit to Worthing Homes’ new development, SkyWaves – part of the PlaceShaping in Action series - which will create homes and support for homeless people and has only come about through true partnership working. I’m sure there will be much to be learned from this innovative project. At PlaceShapers every day is a school day!
From Greatwell Homes our contribution to shared learning will be to lead the launch of a best practice data and insight toolkit that members will be able to use to measure the social value and financial impact of individual placeshaping activities. More on this to follow in 2025.
Collaborate
One of the opportunities I was given early on was to Chair a session on Healthy Communities at the annual PlaceShapers annual conference in November. I must admit I was a bit nervous beforehand and hoped that I could do the brilliant speakers from Ongo, 54 North and Worthing Homes justice. I need not have worried the stories they told were so fascinating it was easy to take the session forward. My main challenge was not hogging all the questions and giving other delegates the opportunity ask some of their own!
In writing this blog I looked up the dictionary meaning of collaboration and it is “the situation of two or more people working together to create or achieve the same thing.”
And I honestly couldn’t have thought of a more apt way to end my blog on my first three months as a PlaceShapers board member. I always knew PlaceShapers was a great organisation but what I’ve had reinforced in the last three months is that “PlaceShapers is made up of numerous housing organisations working together to put place-shaping at the heart of decision making and helping communities to thrive.”
I cannot wait for the next three months!