Black Country Housing Group (BCHG), a leading housing association based in Blackheath, has today (24/03/2021) launched its new EDI Strategy, outlining its commitments, and setting out immediate actions to improve and accelerate change. The strategy highlights BCHG’s efforts in promoting equality, diversity and inclusion for its customers and employees.

The overall vision of the ambitious strategy is to create a diverse and inclusive environment where customers and colleagues have a sense of belonging, where they feel their voice is heard, their opinion matters, and their input and contribution is valued.

Amanda Tomlinson, BCHG’s Chief Executive, said:

‘’Black Country Housing Group’s mission statement is ‘A Social Business Investing in People and Communities’, and we provide services to our customers in areas rich in diversity. It is important that our workforce is reflective of our communities so that we can relate to, hear, and understand the challenges that our customers face.

‘’At BCHG we want to celebrate difference and embrace diversity of thoughts and ideas. For us to shape a culture of openness and respect, one where difference is celebrated, we all need to share the responsibility, right from the top and across all our services. Through the development of our new EDI Strategy we have identified several ways in which we can improve, and we are excited to deliver on our commitment.’’

The strategy includes an EDI Action Plan, which shows in detail how the housing association actively plans to meet their vision over the next three years. These actions are broadly broken down in to the following four key objectives of the EDI Strategy:

  • Culture: Raise the profile of EDI at BCHG and keep it there so that everyone becomes an EDI Champion.
  • People: Increase the diversity of our colleagues including Board and Leadership.
  • Data: Improve the data we hold for our customers so that we improve relationships and tailor support.
  • Performance: Introduce a suite of EDI specific KPIs for both customers and colleagues so that we can monitor our performance and be held to account.

Watch this video to hear Lorna Wallace-Davis, a Board Member at BCHG, speak of the organisation’s efforts to create a diverse and inclusive environment through the launch of the EDI strategy.

Read the full EDI Strategy here.