What is the Working Residents Community of Practice?
The Practice Development Unit (PDU) Working Residents Community of Practice (CoP) is an online forum for professionals, volunteers and people with lived experience to more fully understand the barriers to employment experienced by both staff and service users within supported accommodation settings.
This CoP is facilitated in partnership with Jess Smith, Research and Evaluation Manager at Framework. Jess has been working within complex needs and employability services for more than sixteen years. She is a passionate advocate of ‘work first’ and strengths-based approaches that champion the holistic benefits of engaging with employability.
Supporting vulnerable people to engage with employability and move into paid work is a valuable endeavour. It helps individuals to move away from the entrapments of poverty and homelessness. It also helps people to develop a greater sense of personal fulfilment, social inclusion, and agency over their lives.
Whilst loss of employment can be a cause for homelessness, homelessness may also act as a barrier to remain employed or regain employment.
To respond to this issue we have launched this subgroup within our Employability and Skills CoP to focus on understanding and addressing the issue of working residents. This forum works to improve employability outcomes for people living in supported housing and challenge how the system operates so it is more supportive of people who experience severe and multiple disadvantage (SMD).
Who can join?
Whilst our main Employability & Skills CoP will continue to be an open group for people to learn about employability and skills in the context of SMD, this forum will be a closed group to people working within or receiving support from supported accommodation locally.
We also welcome the involvement of people with lived experience of SMD who would like to contribute to positive system change, as well as employers.
Meetings
The group meets every two months, usually on Wednesday mornings from 10am to 12 noon. All our sessions are online and are facilitated via Zoom.
Our confirmed dates for 2024 are:
- Wednesday 24 January
- Wednesday 27 March
- Wednesday 22 May
- Wednesday 24 July
- Wednesday 25 September
- Wednesday 27 November
Do I have to attend all the meetings?
Our network is rooted in partnership. We want to ensure a diverse range of services and voices are represented. In order to gain maximum learning, we encourage participants to attend all sessions or nominate a colleague to attend on their behalf to promote consistency within the membership.
Are the sessions recorded?
Although we don’t record our meetings, we often produce resources from our discussions to help share learning and good practice.
What can I expect from attending?
A supportive peer led forum with a growing cross agency membership.
- Be supported to reflect on the support given around employability and skills within your own service/organisation
- Explore what steps you might take to overcome barriers faced by residents
- Opportunity to work through challenges with peers via Case Studies
- Share your own expertise and good practice via Case Studies
- Gain insight into the lived experience perspective.
We have a link for people to submit case studies ahead of our sessions. This provides members with opportunities to ask for help and identify system barriers, escalate issues to strategic partnerships, as well as share knowledge/ expertise and highlight areas of good practice.
Want to learn more?
We have created a briefing pack to explain the context to our group and share details of the format and content of our meetings and the benefits of membership. View a copy and share as appropriate with your networks
PDU Working Residents Community of Practice (CoP) Briefing Pack
PDU Working Residents Community of Practice (CoP) Poster
How can I join the mailing list?
If you are interested in this CoP and would like to be added to the mailing list, or if you have any further questions, please email the Practice Development Unit (PDU) Team: pdu@nottinghamcvs.co.uk