Our tailormade leadership interventions are built on research from our ‘Future Leaders in Housing workshops’, conversations with CEOs and Chairs across the social housing sector and feedback from previous participants.

The programme has been delivered successfully over the last four years

• Certified by the CPD Certification Service.
• The programme involves a series of bespoke workshops, one-to-one coaching, peer conversations and personality profiling spread across eight months
• You will also have access to a private LinkedIN networking group for alumni, current participants, mentors and UNIFY members.

The cost of the programme is subsidised for UNIFY Members from the normal fee £3,750 + VAT. Please visit our dedicated website for more information. 

Recognising that many housing providers have recently established employee networks, we have created a forum for network leads (primarily Chairs or committee members) across the sector.

One unique aspect UNIFY can bring is our expertise in leading staff networks. With experience in leading networks within our respective organisations, we understand the challenges and opportunities.

The Staff Network Forums will take place throughout the year and address topical issues that have been identified by participants from previous forums as key priorities.

The session will last 1 hour and are bi-monthly events that usually take place  over Microsoft Teams or sometimes in-person. These events will focus on specific topics.

• Regular support and training to Network Leads
• Setting up core infrastructure e.g. communication channels, file management and governance structures
• Too much too soon – finding your focus as a committee.
• Performance management of volunteers
• Experiencing burnout
• Community vs Organisational goals for network.
• More…

Our sessions are designed to create an inclusive and supportive culture where network leads can openly discuss sensitive issues. Our goal is to provide a safe space for network leads to share best practices and develop as effective leaders.

Over the years, we have extended an exclusive invitation to the CEOs of the largest housing associations and key stakeholders for an open collaborative discussion. Here, we explore innovative ways to engage with colleagues in housing, embracing difficult conversation and fostering a united approach.

UNIFY provides a platform where conversations are ignited based on emerging EDI trends in the sector. These discussions lay the foundation for meaningful action, whether it’s dismantling inequalities or paving the path for emerging leaders to assume roles that impact local communities, residents, and the sector at large.

Our previous open discussion events include

• Social Justice Discussion (2016)
• Housing Leadership Discussion (2017)
• 30 Years Forward (2017)
• Colour in your Career (2018)
• Crunch Time (2019)
• Career Fair (2020)
• The Pledge, 3 Years On (2023)

Our ambition now is to elevate and expand this event, creating even more opportunities for participation from staff within our member organisations. This year as part of our programme we’re planning to bring the CEO’s together to continue having topical discussions around equality, diversity and inclusion. 

We understand the aspiration of organisations to cultivate a culture that nurtures both individual heritage and collective celebration during the year.

At UNIFY we’re hear to support organisation by delivering cultural events for our members. Staff members from your organisation will have access to attend each event to celebrate both heritage and culture. It’s a place where they can explore aspects of their identity with like-minded people.  

The events we commit to delivering.

• Ramadan / Eid (Feb - March)
• Black History Month (October)
• Pride (Part of our intersectionality work at UNIFY -June)
• Christmas (December)

Each event signifies our commitment to embracing cultures, acknowledging intersectionality and increasing allyship.

This year UNIFY is looking to deliver a series of specific workshops to equip managers, senior leaders and employees with the tools to better ingrain EDI with a focus on ethnicity, thus helping to form and embed an inclusive culture within the workplace.

Our workshops are designed to support organisations in their commitment to being an inclusive employer and help shape their EDI strategy when considering ethnicity. The workshops will provide opportunities to share good practice across member organisations and keep the discussions going.

We’re here to help each decision maker as an individual in their role to develop a personal awareness of how they can create safe spaces for discussions, encourage, inspire, and bring about positive outputs to better manage situations where staff members feel seen, heard and respected when being affected by adversity and discrimination.

The workshops will also help raise awareness of how managers and employees can be active allies through sponsorship, championing and celebrating ethnicity inclusion.

These sessions will take place online, so that we can cater to more participants and have a wider reach.

Historically, UNIFY have supported the G15 to deliver its ‘Diverse Development and Sales Mentorship Programme’. We are now looking to build upon that structure and offer our own mentoring programme which is accessible to other areas within housing.

Our programme has been designed to support talented individuals from ethnically diverse backgrounds who wish to benefit from invaluable insights, guidance, and support from experienced mentors. We want all our mentees to connect in meaningful ways with someone whose past experience can help them navigate their career path.

We have developed a bespoke list of mentors that include senior leaders across the sector. Additionally, we will also be utilising the LeadershipNOW! alumni as mentors, this allows some mentees to benefit from the valuable insight delivered by the programme.

The mentorship programme will run throughout the year. The programme will be a mixture of both in person and online sessions, making the format more engaging and accessible for all participants.