United St Saviour’s Charity joins the Housing LIN’s family of sponsors
We are delighted to announce that United St Saviour’s Charity, a charitable organisation organisation dedicated to providing community investments and provision of almshouses for older people (opens new window), is a new sponsor of the Housing LIN!
United St Saviour’s Charity
Set up in the late 16th century, and with a vision of “a united and thriving Southwark with strong, inclusive and equal communities”, they have continued to provide suitable accommodation for older people living in Southwark.
They offer grant-making programmes (opens new window) that assist local communities in addressing social challenges by investing in projects that demonstrate a strong history of generating social benefits while also taking inventive approaches to tackling these challenges.
Alison Benzimra, Head of Research and Influence at United St Saviour's Charity, commented:
“United St Saviour’s Charity is thrilled to be a sponsor of the Housing LIN. We have the same
commitment to sharing knowledge and valuing evidence-based research for the delivery of high-quality housing for older people.
We will soon be opening the doors to our new almshouse, Appleby Blue (opens new window), in the heart of inner-city London. Appleby Blue has been designed to provide independent living for older people over 65 in a supportive and inclusive setting. We want the building to be used by local groups and residents so that the people who live and work in Appleby Blue are members of a thriving, mixed community of all ages.
We will be collaborating on several research projects with academic partners and partnering on many other initiatives around good building design, housing services, community activities and health and social care in Southwark. We look forward to sharing these learnings with the Housing LIN community.”
Appleby Blue Almshouse
Appleby Blue Almshouse offers an exciting opportunity for the charity to develop and extend its role in research into:
- Healthy ageing models (opens new window) and practices
- The value of intergenerational activities (opens new window) for community cohesion and wellbeing
- The effect of almshouse charity model as an alternative to private and/or local authority provision of housing, on resilience in social connectedness, built environment and governance (opens new window).
Jeremy Porteus, CEO and Housing LIN, commented:
“We are absolutely delighted to have United St Saviours join the small family Housing LIN sponsors and, in particular, support the curation of the almshouse pages on our website. With the opening of the Charity’s new almshouse, Appleby Blue - designed by Stirling Prize architects, Witherford, Watson and Mann - they have created really desirable new accommodation for older people in Bermondsey, a benchmark for older people's social housing.”
We also look forward to Thursday’s Almshouse Longevity Study Report Launch Event (opens new window), the largest study in the UK investigating the life expectancy of residents in almshouses, in which United St Saviour's Charity played a crucial role as a collaborator, and uploading the new report on our website to increase its reach and readership via Housing LIN members.