Community is the key to your new home…

We don’t mind admitting that initially, we were a little unsure why we had been selected for the Housing LIN Future Leaders Programme, as we both had numerous years of experience in leadership roles.

However, we were asked to step outside the Integrated Retirement Community (IRC) world and into the wider housing sector and very quickly the opportunities to learn started to present themselves.

The first meeting was held at our Millfield Green community and we both felt really at home and comfortable in that environment. As Village Managers of an Inspired Village, we felt very proud and privileged as the rest of the cohort described “feeling like they arrived at a 5-star hotel”, and in some ways, they had.

Following the introductions, it was clear that the housing sector goes way beyond an IRC and our eyes were being opened to barriers and funding challenges of the sector and its variations in the UK.

Within the one-hour introduction, we had already discussed the first LBGTQ retirement community, disability housing and migrant challenges to name a few. All of which we have never had to consider. The one consistent message throughout was the need for Community, regardless of the environment.

It was in that first meeting we knew the programme was going to be the perfect platform for us to educate our teams and enhance our resident experience. Over the coming months, we connected with our fellow cohort to bring to life some of the intergenerational ideas they shared that wholeheartedly matched our values.

We have since delivered ‘Day in the Life of an Inspired Village’ sessions, working alongside our teams, including such things as; designing a show home; pitching the property sale; practical lunch creation; and front-of-house hospitality exercises, for up to 100 14-16-year-olds over three days. These days gave so much joy to the residents, sharing their own life skills and being around young people - even learning how to make a TikTok!

Once again, the Community element shone through and that is the key to any happy, vibrant community setting. Thank you to our fellow cohort for educating us on the wider housing sector and allowing us to revise our annual activities within our business. Hopefully this will help us deliver on ‘The Best Years of our Life’ for our residents.

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Rachel and Albert's blog is one of many by members of the 4th cohort of the Housing LIN’s Future Leaders Programme that we are excited to publish in the lead up to our 'sell-out' London conference – A Festival of Ideas: Age-Friendly Homes and Connected Community, taking place on Wednesday, 26 March 2025. We'll be joined by several of the Future Leaders who will be joining sponsor, Inspired Villages Group, that afternoon to share their sector leadership journeys.