Building Community outside the Organisation
External links matter for almshouse charities, because otherwise, prospective partners may have little or no understanding of how an almshouse charity could help their local communities. These links can contribute to resilience because of the many ways discussed below that partnerships can help. Here we explore how and where some of these links have been formed. Our partner charities offer a range of housing and support for older people, and they understand that, as one trustee said:
“[The] emphasis will be on engagement and relationship building with local authorities. … You can’t do this type of work without that kind of relationship.”
(Governance 12)
Some partners have almshouses across a region, others are based in one location. Depending on local context, partners prioritised where to build links, from parish councils, district councils and county councils to unitary authorities; with NHS organisations and services; and with third sector voluntary organisations, from Age UK and Citizens Advice to small local community and faith groups. Links with non-profit organisations can create awareness for the wider local community.
Our research partners display many examples of the advantages of building community outside their organisations. Some partners have widened the charity’s area of operation, with Charity Commission approval if necessary, so that they could work across the whole of a London borough or metropolitan county, instead of just a limited area. This can provide opportunities for future growth, and partnerships with voluntary organisation working in more disadvantaged areas. Some partners also reflected on where they were working, or not working. As a trustee said:
“I’d like us to feel a bit more at the heart of some of our communities in the sense of the things that we could do to help [more] people, particularly [name], it’s very ethnically diverse.”
(Governance 4).
If almshouse charities are not interested in building relationships, they may acquire a reputation with potential partners that can have negative impacts. Referring to a period before new senior staff and trustees were appointed, an interviewee at one partner explained :
“I think the charity had a bit of a reputation for being very insular and inward focusing”
(Governance 5).
This indicates that the new senior appointees understood the need to explain what they could offer. An interviewee at a different partner explained that previously, their charity had no concept of building external relations until new senior staff and trustees arrived.
Some partners’ senior staff and trustees had extensive links with key people in local organisations, sometimes from previous jobs in the area. Positive relationships with local authorities, health services and third sector voluntary organisations can benefit residents directly as well as sometimes helping almshouse staff in their support roles: one example was a one-to-one befriending service offered by Age UK. Other examples included activities for residents and other local people, facilitated by voluntary organisations in almshouse facilities; health services or advice surgeries available at the almshouse; and a community transport arrangement for travel to local shops and facilities. External organisations can also gain from their relationship with a local almshouse charity. Providing services in almshouse settings can help organisations to meet their own targets and objectives, with the potential to attract more people to access their services in one location, compared with older people scattered across a wider area.
Several partners were working closely with their local authority for future plans and for commissioned projects. Examples included a partner working on a master plan jointly with their local authority to be part of the next 15-year local plan. Another partner explained that their local authority had already commissioned some services from them, because of preferring to work with a local partner instead of with a larger provider. Partnerships with a local voluntary organisation were also being explored for joint approaches to opportunities:
“We’re looking at what we can do more with them. We can both offer solutions to some of the social prescribing … If we work together, we’ll probably get more done than if we try to do it individually”.
(Governance 4).
If the charity has other functions as well as almshouses, this can also help to expand their networks. A partner with expertise in community investment worked with their council during the pandemic to distribute funds to voluntary organisations and two partners made grants to small faith-based organisations and others working with minority communities. This can build new opportunities to invite organisations to work with the almshouse residents and staff and provide different activities, such as the cookery school at Appleby Blue Almshouse.
Another partner developed wider links with many new voluntary and faith organisations during the pandemic, using social media to draw attention to their older almshouse residents as well as their care home. One project came from a trustee’s idea to create an art project through links with other artists; another partner celebrates its working-class origins and historic links at a high-profile annual Gala which attracts extensive publicity. Local and regional media can be very helpful in raising awareness of almshouses: a local newspaper article led to the region’s open-air museum installing a replica of a terrace of their 1950s almshouses.
Some partners also work with other local almshouse charities, with housing associations as development partners, and by sharing care staff at an extra-care scheme. Some also have external links with central government, Skills for Care and university researchers: this can lead to other openings and gets the charity’s name known.
