CSR initiatives in partnership with Adullam Homes

Overview

Adullam Homes Housing Association is a specialist provider of quality housing and support services. They work with local authorities and other public sector partners to house and/or support 1,000 people across England and Wales. Adullam Homes is running a wide variety of services in more than 20 locations including Bolton, Birmingham, Chesterfield, Denbighshire, Leicester, and Sheffield. Adullam Social Enterprises is a subsidiary of Adullam Homes and provide support to the most vulnerable client groups in society.

CSR at Adullam 

Our initial contact with Adullam was with their HR team to understand how we could support their Social Value initiatives, building on successful partnerships with other housing associations. We were quickly put in touch with the Head of Social Enterprises, Sharon Ames, and arranged an initial introduction call in January 2024 to demonstrate the social value initiatives we can support on and deliver, including our employability workshops. 

Scoping meeting

Claire Harrison, Associate Director for Housing & Property Services recruitment, is one of our Social Value leads. Claire has successfully delivered workshops in partnership with Karbon Homes, Newcastle College and University of Northampton. She has almost 20 years’ experience recruiting across housing and property services, and has a wealth of experience providing careers guidance and recruitment skills training. 

In March 2024 Claire organised and attended a Teams meeting with the Head of Social Enterprises and Adullam’s Social Enterprise Trainer to review and agree:

• What types of workshops we could deliver 
• Which services, and vulnerable service users, these sessions could be applicable for.

The workshop

The agreed solution was to deliver a two-day workshop in May 2024 in partnership with one of Adullam Homes sheltered accommodation services. The two-day workshop was designed to give the attendees a solid understanding of the recruitment process, support to develop employability skills, and personalised advice on their career. The sessions included:

• Group workshop training session covering CV writing, interview techniques, conducting a job search, what hiring managers are looking for, what line managers expect in the first few weeks. 
• One-to-one career meetings with each attendee, including a personal discussion about each individual’s job aspirations, and practical support such as preparing CVs, setting up profiles on job boards, reviewing available online training and course prospectuses for relevant qualifications. 
• A visit to a professional environment to see work in action. The attendees visited the Science and Industry Museum to gain an understanding of a professional environment. 

Day one saw five attendees join the group workshop and then attend one to ones with Claire. Day two included an additional three attendees who joined the tour and completed one to ones with Claire. 

Attendees were primarily young adults, including job seekers, asylum seekers and students preparing for university. All were currently living in the sheltered accommodation service that the session was aimed at. 

The event itself was a huge success, with Adullam looking for us to roll out similar programmes across their network of service users’ country wide. Candidates really valued the one-to-one sessions and the practical support preparing CVs and gaining tailored advise about their personal career options. 

Client testimonial

“Claire recently came over to our young person project at Adullam Homes and delivered a fantastic 2-day employability workshop. During these sessions Claire spoke to our clients about how to write a CV, interview techniques and how to conduct themselves in a professional working environment.  

The young people who engaged took a lot out of the sessions and Claire really helped them to consider different career opportunities and how their own attitude in the workplace can set themselves up for fantastic long term careers. Due to the success of these sessions, we are now looking at engaging further with Claire across other Adullam Services. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Claire and Sellick Partnership to other organisations who are committed to supporting their clients and wider communities.”

David Clements, Social Enterprise Trainer at Adullam Social Enterprise

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