Building communities
In the current climate we all have to stay safe and stay at home. It’s a huge challenge, especially with the sun shining again, but it’s given us all a chance to think a bit more about how important our environment is to our everyday lives – whether we’re thinking about the planet as a whole or thinking closer to home.
Radian Group doesn’t just build houses; it builds communities too. We invest time, money and resources to help build strong stronger communities, enabling them to become more resilient and better able to cope with the ups and downs of life.
Encouraging an active lifestyle
Through our Community Funding and Life Improvement grants – and through the work of our Community Development Officers and Grounds Maintenance Teams – we have supported communities with a whole range of environmental projects. This includes bulb planting, encouraging interaction with allotments, community gardens, the assembling of play parks, gardening activities in sheltered schemes, litter picks, bird boxes, fly tipping projects, gardening competitions, green gyms, walking groups and much more.
We’re now seeing the benefits as residents turn to their windowsills and balconies, gardens, allotments and local areas as a means of supporting their physical and mental health. With permission to exercise close to home, we’re making the most of those spaces close by, perhaps noticing trees and flowers we’d previously rushed past and missed. Some are using this time to grow their own vegetables: ‘Growing your own food gives you a sense of achievement when you can’t achieve much at the moment.’ – Radian customer
Responding to the current climate
As a team, we have been looking at how we can continue to support residents to maintain, develop and improve their local environments through this difficult time. We are still offering funding to community groups who want to invest in their local areas and we are here to listen and support where needed. We are also using this time to work with residents to start up a project to get more people growing their own fruit and vegetables. We are starting small by inviting residents to grow lettuce, cress, spring onions and more on their windowsills and over the coming months we’ll be looking to see how we can grow this project out further into our communities.
Communities impact on the environment. The environment impacts on communities. Let’s make something good out of this situation by working together to value, care for and enjoy our environment – however big or small.
– Community Involvement team