Getting people involved in an organisation is a difficult task, so Rosebery Housing Association’s answer is to provide its tenants with a little ‘retail therapy’

Back in ancient Greece, the wheels of democratic engagement were oiled in a simple and direct manner - if persuasion failed then slaves were employed to literally whip the good citizens into the forum.

That just goes to show how old a conundrum mobilising civic engagement is whether that’s at the highest levels of national politics, or down at the grass roots community club - how to get people interested and involved.

The same problems and principles apply for social landlords looking to promote the wider engagement with and involvement of their tenants and leaseholders. Clearly, the Athenian approach is a tad harsh by modern standards, but still something needs to be done if an organisation isn’t to rely on the same ageing and narrowing band of active members.

Step up Rosebery Housing Association, which has launched its ‘Opportunity Store’.

The brainchild of Sara Thakkar, the organisation’s chief executive, this is a comprehensive delivery of measures intended to encourage tenants and leaseholders to become engaged with the organisation - and take an active role in shaping its services and delivery, as well as to have the opportunity to “learn, discover and engage”.

As the name implies, the Store is modelled on the retail ‘pick and mix’ approach, so that tenants can choose to ‘shop until they drop’, or simply dip in and take on small, measured steps to involvement. It’s about allowing people to avoid becoming overwhelmed with an everburgeoning ‘portfolio’ of commitments - an occupational hazard for many a member of a voluntary organisation - whilst at the same time opening up the pool of talents and experience that is brought to the fold.

“We are trying to adopt and promote a consumer approach to resident involvement,” explained Sally Hind, service development manager. “We recognise that there isn’t a one size fits all approach to try and engage our customers - everyone is individual.

“Sometimes you’ll go to the supermarket and do a big shop and at other times you’ll nip in and get a small basket of bits and pieces. So, we want to give our customers a choice, a shopping list approach, that they can pick and choose what’s suitable for them at the time, depending on their situation and their needs.”

As well as encouraging more people to take an active role in Rosebery’s governance and oversight, expanding on the core of long standing activists that are often the backbone of any community or voluntary group, the Store is also looking to bridge a generation gap and so fulfil what might be termed a ‘succession issue’.

Sooner or later, older participants will move on, taking with them a wealth of experience and knowledge. How are they to be succeeded by a fresh generation of activists? That’s a question the Opportunity Store seeks to address.

“We found that resident involvement had become very narrow,” Hind added, alluding to that common theme of reaching out beyond the ‘core backbone’ of active participants. “We’ve found that we’ve got a core group of about 30 residents that we engage with on a regular basis. That’s a fairly common situation. So we’re hoping to broaden that and increase the level and range of customers we are engaging with on a day-to-day basis.”

Rosebery seeks to promote involvement through properly resourced capacity building and training for residents. The Opportunity Store includes the ‘Brighter Future Fund’, a bursary available to individuals and groups who can demonstrate a need for financial support to help develop and gain new skills, knowledge and learning opportunities. The fund prioritises those wishing to access education or return to work; therefore supporting Rosebery’s commitment to address worklessness in the communities in which they work.

The supermarket approach is intended to make engagement easier, but isn’t necessarily an inducement to participate. Rather than go the Athenian way, Rosebery has opted for carrot rather than stick - again with a technique borrowed from retailing.

Under the system, points are awarded whenever residents engage with the Association and - just like a retailer’s loyalty card scheme - these can be redeemed against products and services. These may be retail vouchers, for example, or other services partnered into the Opportunity Store - or even credited against the tenant’s rent. Different levels of participation, from filling out a questionnaire to attending a forum or committee will bring greater reward points.

The system is centred around its own website running parallel to Rosebery’s corporate site, with every tenant and leaseholder having their own unique login. This allows them to monitor the points in their account, access the list of available products those points can be redeemed against, and otherwise provide an open communication link with the organisation.

Not every one has web access, of course, so the system can also be accessed ‘remotely’ via a telephone call to the organisation’s customer services team. This will enable them to monitor their account, claim rewards, and log their interest in forthcoming engagement opportunities.

“The Opportunity Store is a way of recognising that we are a service industry,” Hind said. “So we must adapt some of the techniques and look at the service industries to find ways to deal with our customers and respond to them.”

So, the shop is now open.