About UNIFY
Formed by people of colour, so that diverse voices in housing are heard.
A cross-organisational race equality network across the G15, London’s largest housing associations. Volunteer-led since 2016.
Where we started
Five networks, one room
UNIFY plays a distinct and critical role in the sector: it enables collective progress where fragmented efforts fall short.
Impact Report 2025
In October 2016, staff network groups from Clarion, Notting Hill, Peabody, Genesis and L&Q met for the first time. They came together after a sharp rise in hate crime, and around a shared frustration: each network was fighting the same battles alone, inside its own organisation, with the same limited reach.
That first event was a panel on social justice, examining how colleagues from ethnically diverse backgrounds experience work differently across both the private and public sectors. It has not stopped since. Chief executives joined the conversation in 2019. The G15 Ethnic Diversity Pledge followed in 2020. By 2023, every G15 organisation was a member.
UNIFY is volunteer-led. Everyone who runs it does so alongside a full-time job in housing, which is both the reason it carries credibility inside these organisations and the reason it has to choose its work carefully.
What we are for
Three aims, stated plainly
Strategic partner to the G15
Not a support group. UNIFY sits alongside the chief executives of London's largest housing associations and holds them to commitments they have made in public.
Advocating for careers
Opening routes into senior roles for colleagues from ethnically diverse backgrounds, through development programmes, mentoring and direct access to decision makers.
Best practice for staff networks
A monthly forum where network chairs share what has worked and what has not, so that a network starting today does not begin from nothing.
And a fourth direction, newer than the rest: connecting more closely to the resident voice, so that what changes for colleagues also changes for the people they house.
Where we’ve come from
Ten years of refusing to work alone
Staff networks from Clarion, Notting Hill, Peabody, Genesis and L&Q meet in October. UNIFY begins.
G15 chief executives meet UNIFY to discuss colleagues from ethnically diverse backgrounds.
The G15 Ethnic Diversity Pledge is signed, targeting 30% representation at board level.
Ninety-four colleagues have now completed Leadership Now! The Staff Network Forum relaunches as a monthly meeting.
The challenge
We must be clear-eyed
Ethnic representation on G15 boards fell between 2022 and 2025. Development programmes have not reliably translated into progression, which makes the original 30% pledge target unattainable on its current path.
This demands systemic change beyond individual talent support.
Get involved
Your network deserves more than good intentions
Insights, event invitations and best practice for staff network leads. Once a month, no noise.
Opens our sign-up form on Klaviyo, the service that sends the UNIFY newsletter.