Manchester & District Housing Association have been short-listed for the Diversity & Race Award, for their work in Old Trafford, by the National Housing Federation’s, iN business for neighbourhoods awards.
M & D work with over 40 different ethnic groups in Old Trafford and ensure that their work is reflective of the community it serves.
Their creation of Customer Influencing Panels, made up of tenants from a variety of cultures including Afro/Caribbean, Pakistani, Irish, Somalian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu & British, replaces traditional tenant committees that were not fully representative of the diverse communities they served.
M & D also host a number of events to promote community involvement and multi-culturalism.
They were responsible for the city’s first ever Multi-Cultural Awareness Day, an event so successful that it is now scheduled to become an annual landmark event, and every summer they host Party in the Park at Seymour Park in Old Trafford with a number of activities designed to promote cultural celebrations.
M & D staff are also learning Urdu to support the needs of non-English speaking members of the community and it’s testament to the relationships M & D have built with the community that Urdu speaking tenants are acting as their language mentors.
Add to all this charity events, various community initiatives, clean-up days, neighbourhood support and delivery of skills to name but a few, and it’s not difficult to see why M & D have been short-listed for an iN business award.
Lorna Powell, Manchester & District’s Neighbourhood Regeneration Officer for Old Trafford comments:
“It is vital for us as a social landlord working within the community to recognise and respond to the needs of all our residents and our nomination by the National Housing Federation, hopefully suggests we’re going in the right direction.”
The awards, which will be hosted by Ruby Wax at the Birmingham International Convention Centre in September, are designed to recognise and promote the excellent work that housing associations do within the community.
And from the 300 entries that were submitted to the Awards this year from Housing Associations throughout the country, Manchester & District are delighted to have made it to the final.