VIVID Plus

VIVID Plus is our charitable arm, which invests in a wide range of services, to provide people with tailored, individual support and tackles community led priorities, to help people feel proud of where they live.  

The projects we support are highly targeted to our main areas of focus; we work closely with experts and partner agencies, rather than there being an open application process to apply for funding.

These areas include: improving personal safety through crime prevention and youth support, health interventions to improve life chances, investing in neighbourhood improvements and reducing stigma around social housing.   

Our work is highly targeted to identify where there are opportunities to help communities to grow and prosper. Through our established partnerships with local authorities and other community-focused organisations we’re aware of, we're identifying projects which we can support to help get them up and running. 

As such, there’s no process available to apply for funding and VIVID Plus will choose to invest in projects that align with our main areas of focus which include: improving personal safety through crime prevention and youth support, health interventions to improve life chances, tackling homelessness, investing in neighbourhood improvements and reducing stigma around social housing.   

If you have a project or idea that you’d like to discuss with us, or if you have any questions, we’d be really keen to chat with you. Please contact our Place Shaping Manager, Sarah Smith by emailing sarah.smith@vividhomes.co.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. 

There is not an open application process for funding and VIVID Plus chooses to invest in projects that align with our main areas of focus which include: improving personal safety through crime prevention and youth support, health interventions to improve life chances, tackling homelessness, investing in neighbourhood improvements and reducing stigma around social housing.   

If you have a project or idea that you’d like to discuss with us, or if you have any questions, we’d be really keen to chat with you. Please contact our Place Shaping Manager, Sarah Smith by emailing sarah.smith@vividhomes.co.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. 

They benefit from the knowledge and experience we and our partners have of creating opportunities for customers and communities to thrive.

We work closely with individuals, community groups and other relevant organisations to understand needs, opportunities for success and to plan and help implement solutions that deliver the best possible social impact.

We’re focused on enabling communities to organise and take action together to address the things that matter to them in their households, homes, communities and neighbourhoods.

Through VIVID Plus we’re bringing a strengthened focus to 2 key areas: doing even more than we already do to help customers maintain their tenancies, especially when they’re facing changing and challenging circumstances. Helping customers to get back on track will provide them with a springboard to further opportunities and therefore improve life chances. 

VIVID Plus also brings a much greater emphasis on place shaping activities and working in partnership, to for example help reduce health inequalities, get more rough sleepers off the streets and inject new life into communities.

VIVID Plus launched in 2021 and we aim to invest £21 million over the next 5 years, and we’re actively in discussion and planning with other organisations to identify a range of activities and projects to help address community-led priorities and life chances.  

The VIVID Plus board is chaired by Anne-Marie Mountifield, who is also a Non-Executive Board Member at VIVID. The other board members include Margaret Dodwell, Chief Operating Officer at VIVID and Duncan Brown, Chief Finance Officer at VIVID. Two VIVID customers are also active members of the VIVID Plus board, who were chosen to represent the views and voices of the community and ensure the best investments are made. 

As part of our customer engagement strategy, we asked our customers if they’d like to get more involved in VIVID and have a more direct impact in the decisions we make as an organisation. From that list of customers who put themselves forward, we asked them whether they’d be keen to get involved in our charitable arm and those who said yes went through a rigorous selection and interview process. Two customers sit on the VIVID Plus board helping to represent the views and voices of the community and ensure the best investments are made.

The projects we support are highly targeted to our main areas of focus and where possible, we’ll look to invest in projects and initiatives that have a positive green impact on the local community and area. 

We have no current plans to recruit more customers to sit on the VIVID Plus board at this time. This said, many of our customers will be involved and find themselves directly impacted by VIVID Plus through receiving certain services or by benefitting from investments made into their local area. 

In the first 3 years of VIVID Plus, our key achievements have included:

• securing additional income of over £20m for our customers receiving tenancy support
• securing over 900 jobs for our customers through our employment and training service
• helping over 7,000 customers to sustain their tenancies
• providing funding to 12 food project to help our communities with the cost-of-living crisis
• investing in 8 community centres to improve services to our communities
• achieving a return of over £30m of social value
• improving ASB and crime outcomes for our 8 priority investment areas through our local plans

In developing our plans for the next 3 years, we’ve listened to our customers alongside considering internal and external factors, including national drivers, stakeholder plans and business priorities. 

Our work will be based on the following approach:

• work in close collaboration with our customers, local, regional, and national partners, harnessing their complementary experience and expertise
• challenge longstanding inequalities faced by our customers
• make positive contributions to relevant local and national policy debates which impact our customers
• consult with customers to develop comprehensive solutions - recognising the importance of locally led initiatives
• target and prioritise resources based on internal and external factors to ensure added value, positive impact, and outcomes for our customers
  remain flexible within our approach whilst ensuring clear sustainability and exit strategies at the outset of our project work
  provide accessible and inclusive support, encouraging diversity and representation ensuring our work reflects the local character of our communities.