Community
Beyond the Bricks
Commitment to our communities during Covid-19
We’re committed to being a force for good in our communities, and in response to Covid-19 we’ve been working closely with our charity partners across the UK. In the short term, this has helped to provide immediate support to those facing huge challenges in our communities including people experiencing homelessness, families in poverty and vulnerable individuals in isolation. Over the coming months, we’ll continue to support our charity partners to help them sustainably deliver their services beyond the pandemic.
Going virtual
One way we’ve been doing this is through our community employment and education programmes. And while we may not be able to run these in person at the moment, we’ve been adapting them so we can run them virtually, closely supported by our volunteers.
This means our education programmes, which engage local students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, have continued to run online. It’s also meant that our employment programmes are continuing to provide important skills, confidence and mentoring for people in our communities facing additional barriers at this time. Projects have included:
- Running virtual careers sessions with charity partners where people interested in careers in property speak to our volunteers, ensuring they can maintain resilience and motivation.
- Remote mentoring for students to inspire them about different areas within our industry, helping them to gain business insights and define their career ambitions.
As part of our virtual careers sessions we worked with Circle Collective, who support young people into work in Lewisham.
LandAid
At the beginning of this crisis, LandAid launched a Covid-19 appeal, which united the property industry in providing emergency grants to grassroots charities that support young people experiencing homelessness across the UK. The fund was set up to help charities provide basic necessities for vulnerable young people including food, accommodation, bill payments and mental health support.
As a founding partner of the fund, we are pleased that LandAid has given out over £625,000 in emergency funding to 74 charities, in every region and country in the UK. In total, LandAid has raised over £900k for the appeal and are in touching distance of their £1 million target.
Our employees are also using their skills to give pro-bono business support to charities through LandAid, to help them get through this challenging time.
Utilising our spaces to support the NHS
As well as supporting our existing community partners, we’ve also been working with the NHS at a local level, to help the remarkable people at the front line of fighting Covid-19. We’ve used our spaces to provide free car parking for NHS staff and other key workers, as well as for mobile blood banks to ease pressure on hospitals.
As part of our virtual careers sessions we worked with Circle Collective, who support young people into work in Lewisham.
Campaigns on Piccadilly Lights
Where possible, we’ve been using Piccadilly Lights to provide advertising space for charitable campaigns and messages of solidarity. For example, in May, the amazing Young Westminster Foundation launched their ‘We Are Together’ campaign. The campaign was created to help young people get online, stay connected and access youth services during these challenging times.
The past couple of months have been hugely unsettling. Supporting our community partners during this time has remained extremely important to us, ensuring we can continue to engage with some of the most excluded groups in our society. As we head into the coming months, we’re committed to using our spaces, resources and skills to continue supporting our communities through this crisis.
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