You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Investing commercial profit into communities
Our foundation has just awarded its one-millionth pound of funding, writes John Johnston, chief executive of the Bernicia Group
John Johnston is chief executive of the Bernicia Group
Housing associations deliver social value in so many ways, and while, at heart, we are social landlords, we are often so much more.
One example of this is the Bernicia Foundation that has just awarded our one-millionth pound of funding to support local good causes.
It’s an achievement I’m extremely proud of.
The milestone investment demonstrates just how much of a positive difference housing associations can make to people’s lives and the communities they live in. The added value that social housing providers deliver often goes unheralded.
Bernicia understands the pressures people face every day, including charities and voluntary organisations which bring vital help to the most vulnerable in society.
READ MORE
We get to know many of our tenants, who trust us to provide them with quality homes and services which support them to live well.
They often tell us how difficult life is and we know that, especially for young people, a lack of opportunities can curb confidence and aspiration, and lead to mental health issues, a diminishing sense of self-worth and difficulties in finding meaningful employment.
It’s been a time of unprecedented strain on the third sector as well, with traditional funding streams drying up while demand for services has increased significantly.
With our board and executive team, I decided five years ago that Bernicia needed to use its knowledge and understanding of these problems to help tackle them in a way that made a positive difference for communities.
Bernicia has a commercial company, estate and property management specialist – Kingston – whose profits are donated annually to our group through gift aid.
That profit, while valuable, tended to get lost within the finances of the organisation, and its impact wasn’t clearly seen.
So we decided to set up a charitable subsidiary, the Bernicia Foundation, to formalise our ‘profit for purpose’ ethos and channel some of this funding directly into our communities.
The Community Foundation provided expertise to help us set up governance and oversight structures to ensure the foundation operated independently, transparently and fairly.
Andrea Malcolm, our executive director of people, homes and communities, was appointed as foundation director, to work alongside a passionate and experienced board of trustees to oversee how grants were awarded.
The grant scheme has been more successful than we ever imagined and its impact in our communities has been broad and truly inspirational.
We launched the Bernicia Foundation in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the UK.
COVID placed enormous extra strain on charities to provide support for hard-pressed communities, at a time when many support organisations were already financially stretched to their limits.
The flexibility of the foundation’s set-up meant we could mobilise financial aid quickly. We provided £200,000 in emergency COVID-19 funding to local authorities and asked them to distribute this to community support charities that could help people immediately, where it was needed most.
Since 2020, 95 charities and voluntary and community organisations have received inclusion grants towards projects that provide everything from poverty relief and working with people with addictions and their families, to disability support, delivering job creation and health activities, as well as supporting care leavers.
Our one-millionth pound of funding has just been awarded to Headliners, a North Tyneside charity that helps care leavers and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to develop interpersonal and employability skills.
It’s great to see talented young people bursting with potential having the chance to pursue their goals in life.
Inspiration grants have been awarded to 33 talented young people to chase their creative and sporting dreams. Musicians and athletes have been able to buy equipment, attend training sessions and compete at the highest level (some for Team GB) because of the support they’ve received from the foundation.
The projects funded align and support the wider work of Bernicia, including our intensive housing support service that helps residents sustain their tenancies.
The foundation has also impacted our commercial relationships positively. The wide client base of our commercial company is filled with businesses that want to work with an organisation that targets its profits towards supporting communities. Commercial clients tell us they get comfort from working with a values-driven organisation with ethical outputs as its goal.
By channeling our profits into charitable and voluntary organisations and talented young people, we believe we have invested £1m in the North East’s future.
John Johnston, chief executive, Bernicia Group
