A vital part of being a housing professional
At the heart of being a housing professional is serving people, meeting their needs. And to do that we as housing professionals and members of CIH need to understand the people and communities we serve.
Everyone who lives in our communities is an individual, with individual needs, desires and dreams – and also individual life experiences. These experiences will be informed by the culture in which we grew up; our gender, age, religion and sexuality; and how the limitations of our bodies – mental and physical – impact on the way we live our lives.
CIH are fully committed to improving equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in our organisation, throughout our membership and across the housing sector.
What are CIH doing?
- Formed an internal EDI group made up of individuals from various backgrounds and departments across the organisation to drive positive change within CIH and throughout our work
- We recently held an internal staff conference with external speakers to raise awareness of racial inequalities
- We're now members of the Housing Diversity Network which gives us access to online self-assessment tools, webinars, video and audio resources and a host of other benefits
- Working with Tai Pawb in Wales on the Deeds not Words pledge around EDI which is challenging organisations to make real their commitment EDI
- Working with Karl George to see whether we can adopt the race equality code which does a similar thing. Karl has been in conversations with NHF and housing associations on this
- Actively working with other professional bodies as part of PARN, learning from their experiences and sharing good practice
- Developed a new Welsh language scheme, launched last year, and set up a bilingual service on our new website; and we’re building up our library of bilingual content all the time.
What’s next?
- We're committed to continuing to promote a variety of cultures and diversity across the housing sector in everything we do
- We'll offer online training for all CIH colleagues as we continue to work towards Diversity 2020
- We'll collaborate with other housing organisations to learn more about great practice already in place - and then implement that at home and spread the word abroad
- We'll continually challenge everything that we do are working to ensure that all aspects of our work are inclusive, including the work with our member steering group to drive professional standards across the sector.
Housing Diversity Network
Learn more about the Housing Diversity Network, a social enterprise that aims to inspire and empower people, promoting equality, diversity and opportunity for all.
Stonewall Housing
Find out more about Stonewall Housing, an organisation helping to create safe spaces for LGBT+ people since 1983.
Got a story for us?
Storytelling can be a powerful tool in helping to build our understanding of diverse and underrepresented communities. Share your story by writing a blog to feature on our website.
