Our social purpose, our golden thread

Alongside this Annual Report, Genesis has published our dedicated Corporate Social Responsibility Impact Report.

Within it, we showcase our achievements in apprenticeships, grant making, volunteering and assisting residents and customers to secure sustainable jobs that will help change lives for the better.

Genesis is proud of our record, which we believe to be among the best in the housing association sector. As an indication of our strength, we are leading a one-year project with two other housing associations to support older residents with mental health needs after securing a £100,000 grant in March 2017 to roll out an intensive volunteering programme.

Funded by the charity Nesta’s ‘Give More Get More Fund’, the V50 project will train over 100 residents aged 50 and over to act as volunteer wellbeing coaches offering dedicated one-to-one support to unemployed peers with moderate to medium mental health needs. Genesis will be supporting 60 volunteers across six London boroughs (Barnet, Brent, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Westminster), and the remaining 40 will be split equally between our partner associations Peabody and Viridian (now Optivo, following merger with AmicusHorizon). The V50 coaches will receive training via Genesis’ befriending service and Mental Health Ambassador training delivered by leading mental health charity, Mind. Other partners including Open Age, Reed in Partnership and London Sport are on board to help with inducting volunteers and offering placements and physical activity programmes. The wellbeing coaches will volunteer for two to three days a week over a four month period at selected housing schemes across the associations’ London footprint. To date, Genesis has held three recruitment/ information events in Brent, Barnet and Newham which attracted a total of 40 attendees. Thirty of these were suitable and have been signed up as volunteer mentors (pending checks). In addition, a total of 18 staff mentors have been recruited to support the volunteers, and so far 40 (potential) beneficiaries have been identified.

V50