Clarion Housing

Thanks to a digital drop-in session delivered by Equans in May, residents in Essex now have a better understanding of the internet and how to easily use their digital devices.

Equans' Social Value Manager, Patrick Warren was joined by his colleagues including Social Value Officer, Richard Sanz, to help deliver a digital drop-in session for residents in Maldon, Essex. The session had the aim of providing a better understanding of the digital world and the internet for daily tasks for those they require a little help with today's technology.

Volunteers from Equans generously gave up their time to give advice and help residents understand how to do some everyday online tasks such as setting up email accounts, booking holidays as well as tips on using cameras and also little tricks to make navigating their digital devices a little easier.

Hawthorn Court has a fresh new look after works have been undertaken by the West Midlands Equans team.

All communal areas have been redecorated and new flooring has been laid.

Resident guidance is now available regarding caring for your kitchen - this includes advice and handy tips when it comes to looking after your newly refurbished kitchen.

Please click here to read Kitchen Unit Care or Kitchen Worktop Care - both can also be found within our Document Library.

A fresh batch of Equans volunteers take over to bring redecoration works at the Organ Hall community centre in Hertfordshire to an end, bringing new life into the centre.

After initially preparing the walls for new paint, works began within the main hall and storage area and a new group of volunteers took over in the latter part of the week to finish painting the centre.

Equans' Social Value Manager, Patrick Warren who organised this initiative commented: "It was a real pleasure carrying out the works on this hall as it offers a wide range of activities for the local community. Thank you AkzoNobel for their generous paint donation to support the project and a big thank you to all our volunteers for their hard work throughout the week!"

A community hall in Hertfordshire has been given a fresh new lick of paint this month thanks to volunteers from Equans.

In March, works started at the Organ Hall community centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, where volunteers from Equans are spending the week preparing and painting the main hall and storage area to give the community a nice space to enjoy for various events.

This activity was organised and co-ordinated by Social Value Manager, Patrick Warren as part of our social value commitments to Clarion Housing Group.

In 2022, Equans partnered with Clarion and Leeds Building Society, along with several other partners and supporters to transform one of Leeds Building Society's old office buildings in Peterborough, into accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.

Early in the year, Equans Social Value Manager, Julian Sanz, popped along to a storage warehouse in Grays, Thurrock, to help facilitate the donation of furniture to the refugee housing project, which saw Clarion donating furniture from their show homes to furnish all the living spaces.

Communal Kitchen	Communal Toilets	Double Room

Equans - with the help of supply chain partners, KM ECO Ltd, Moores Furniture Group and Dulux, supported the scheme through helping to facilitate furniture donation, providing paint and decorating, process waste clearance, and upgrading the kitchen and communal areas.

Living Room	Single Room	Shower Room

"This multi-party initiative saw us coming together to convert some disused office space into refugee housing to the local Peterborough area, allowing some of the most vulnerable people in the community to have somewhere warm, dry and safe to stay where they can rebuild their lives." James Cousins, Regeneration Director for Equans

Click here to view our accompanying video.

Equans covers funds to provide timber and other construction materials needed to create a new large community and sensory garden in Basildon, Essex.

In December 2022, Equans' Social Value Manager, Julian Sanz, visited the Vange Community Centre in Basildon, where Equans are part funding a large youth initiative with Trustlinks.

A disused area of green space to the rear of the community centre, is being transformed into a new large community and sensory garden that will include 9 raised beds, 2 large ponds, a sensory garden and 2 rustic style cabins that will be used to engage local youth and tackle anti-social behaviour issues in the area.

As part of our social value activities on behalf of Clarion, Equans funded the timber and construction of all the raised beds and ponds, as well as the kitchen which has been generously donated by our supply chain partners, Moores Furniture Group.

Thanks to support from Equans, students attending Clarion's 'Local to Global' event in November were given a valuable insight into the world of retrofit solutions.

Earlier this month, Equans' Head of Retrofit Technical Solutions, Alice Monty, joined colleague Julian Sanz, Social Value Manager, and visited Clarions' offices to attend the event and speak with students about her own career and the many reasons why a career in retrofit is a very worthwhile one.

On the day students from several schools in areas where Equans is currently working were joined by Clarion apprentices and were engaged in a careers/presentation workshop.

Alice commented: "My industry is crying out for young people to join. I hope I can get involved with more events like this to support the retrofit revolution my colleagues in the industry and I are trying so hard to establish! It was also really great to hear the experiences of apprentices at Clarion and all about the other very excellent alternatives to traditional higher education that are now available to young people to get the 'jobs of the future'."

This month volunteers from Equans recently supported students and helped them 'Get Work Ready' as part of our partnership with ELSA Next Generation CIC.

Students at the Stevenage Excluded Students Centre received support from Equans when staff members Tony Elliott, Osei Banahene and Miriam Flynn joined them and their teacher to run career targeted games and to discuss careers and workplace needs and expectations. Feedback was fantastic from both the students and the teachers.

As part of Equans' social value activities for Clarion, we support more than 40 school engagement events each year. A large number of these are done through our partnership with ELSA Next Generation CIC who match employers with education providers.

A Hertfordshire resident who suffered domestic abuse has received help from Equans through our Helping Hands Scheme to help improve the living conditions for her and her children.

Unable to afford to furnish her entire house, Sandy (not her real name) had been sleeping on the couch so that her children could have their own rooms. Her eldest daughter had been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the past three years.

Clarion Housing Group's Housing Officer, Tegan, referred Sandy to us in the hope that we could provide support as part of our Helping Hands Scheme. Originally the scheme was set up to provide practical help young care leavers up to the value of £500 per household, to help them in their first home. However, more recently Equans has extended the offer of help to domestic abuse survivors as well.

On 8th November, Equans' Social Value Manager, Julian Sanz, together with one of our multi-skilled operatives visited Sandy's home in Hertfordshire to carry out the improvement works. They donated and installed blinds and curtains to every room in the house and also donated a second hand bed frame, new mattress, lights, bedding and pillows for the daughter's room so that she could finally enjoy a proper room.

Daughter's bedroom before transformation

The bedroom was also given a quick 'changing rooms' style makeover, making the room more appealing and utilising the space fully.

This initiative was carried out as part of our commitment as a signatory member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant.