We’re proud to be part of a project that has been awarded Innovator of the Year (Customer Services) at the UK Housing Awards.
Increase VS, an £10.8million (€13M) employment project funded in part by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), has supported over 1,000 people in England and France into employment or further education and 650 new businesses.
The award, given by Inside Housing, is in recognition of the work Increase VS has done in 38 English and French coastal and rural neighbourhoods, where tourism and industry have declined. These areas suffer high levels of deprivation and low economic activity, so the programme supports residents to get back into work through self-employment.
The project is co-funded by the Interreg France (Channel) England programme with a European Regional Development Fund contribution. It is led by Optivo, and we have provided our Create self-employment course training and follow-on support to the project. To date, we’ve helped over 500 people with business start-up and employment courses.
Accepting the award, Jane Porter, Optivo’s Chief Operating Officer said:
“Our UK partners are now launching self-employment support services that will stay beyond the life of the project; and in what’s a unique feature of this project, successful clients stay engaged as Ambassadors and mobilise others.
“As the labour market changes and self-employment grows, Increase VS offers an opportunity for others in the housing sector to learn. We have built credible expertise, are open about our successes, failures and challenges, and will offer a series of events late 2021 and 2022 to help other Housing Associations set their response around self-employment.”
Optivo partnered with Clarion Futures, Abri, University of East Anglia, and Logirep, Pas de Calais Habitat, Archipel Habitat, Neotoa, WeKer and INCO in France.
The project is co-funded by the ERDF’s Interreg France (Channel) England programme, and was also supported by Orbit, Hyde Housing, Southern Housing Group, Town and Country Housing Group Foundation, West Kent, Fenland District Council, Swale Borough Council.
