Meet the people growing our communities

Lukas was 19 when he moved into supported housing at the Foyer on the Isle of Wight. The Foyer provides emergency accommodation for young people between 16 and 30, who are at risk of homelessness.

Local families were treated to a day to remember at Sovereign’s wildlife-themed community fun day at its Cleve Wood development.

Solent Youth Action (SYA) is a charity based in Eastleigh, focusing on creating support and routines for young people who might otherwise lack this in their school and home environments.

We’ve signed up to the Housing Diversity Network’s (HDN) mentoring scheme. It works by matching people from several housing associations who are at different stages in their career.

We’re delighted to be working with a number of organisations across our geography in the delivery of a wide-variety of summer activities and food programmes for families, children and young people.

One south Gloucestershire resident is celebrating after Sovereign Housing increased her income by more than £400 per month.

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) has no place in our communities. We want the people who live in our homes to feel safe and thrive.

Local housing association, Sovereign, has helped one Oxfordshire couple receive a life-changing back payment of £13k from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Siana and her family are beneficiaries of Cianna’s Smile, a charity providing vital support for people affected by Sickle Cell disease.

A play space at Hookes Way in Newport has had a new lease of life after it was redesigned and redeveloped for local residents.

Amanda, a single mother from New Milton, was working in hospitality but became unemployed due to the Covid-19 lockdowns. She received support from Sovereign which helped her get back on her feet.

Resident Alex came to our Employment and Training team for advice and support on how to maximise his chances of success within the job market, and how to make the best of his skills and experience.

A play space at Preston Close in Ryde has been given a new lease of life after it was redesigned for local residents.

Sharon Chambers talks us through her typical week as a Housing Coordinator, on World Homeless Day.

Julie asked for help from the Employment and Training team because, in her own words, “I had hit an all-time low and felt I was getting nowhere in life and struggling to make ends meet”.

We’ve been working with social enterprise, 'Enterprise CUBE', to offer our residents completely free access to its Strive Live business programme, ‘the start-up hub on your sofa’

Islander Stephen was referred to our Skills 4 Work programme from the DWP. He’d been unemployed for a while but wanted to kick start his career again.

"My financial circumstances changed radically when I became a single mother, and because I wasn’t generating any income, my rent became overdue."

The Befriend Bus is kitted out with a laptop, screen and speakers, and a coordinator will help users connect with loved ones using FaceTime, which they can do from the comfort of the bus or their home

Jack Dunn joined Sovereign through the Kickstarter scheme after leaving school during the pandemic.

Charlotte joins sovereign with her twin Chloe, giving Sovereign a double dose of Admin support.

Aaron Marcham joins Sovereign, with a passion for tech he helps with data cleansing, completing information tasks.

We’re welcoming 40 Kickstarters to Sovereign over the next few months, as part of the government scheme to get young people back into work.

From a Kickstarter to employee, Jasmine Duddy talks about Kickstart and how it has helped her.

"Housing First gave me and Trevor the support we needed to move on with our lives. An address of our own makes us feel safe, and secure."

Our £1,122 funding paid for racking and boxes, which staff and volunteers used to organise the donated items into different age groups - parents can easily choose what they need and save money.

"One of our members said they’ve made a lot of friends and it’s a uniquely supporting community where everyone looks out for each other."

Longfield Community Fridge has fed over 100 bellies since launching, and it’s open each week on a first-come, first-served basis.

Backyard Nature and our Community Development Officer Henry set up a ‘nature drop-in’ at Coniston Community Centre in Bristol.

Isolation meant many older people found they’d lost some physical health and confidence. To help improve it, we worked with Royal Voluntary Service in Banbury to create activity and wellbeing packs.

Martin applied for the Skills 4 Work programme after hearing about it from his GP surgery. He tells us about his journey so far.

Susan joined the Skills 4 Work programme after hearing about it from our Income team. She talks about her experience.

As part of our Aging well programme, we funded Life Cycle UK to run two cycle courses for over 55s at the Hillfields Pump Track in Bristol.

We supported charity Baby Necessities with a £2,057 grant, to help it buy storage and office supplies for its new community space.

Joseph Everett, Service Charge Officer, tells us how the pandemic opened his eyes to the disparities in his homelife, with home-schooling a great leveller.

Adam Rowe, Head of Finance Transformation, tells us how the pandemic changed his working patterns and why he thinks that flexible working is the way forward.

We supported zero-waste Bristol delivery service Oat Float with a £5,000 grant through our Your Community Your Choice programme.

Motherhood brought big changes for Daynah, when she realised that she wanted to become her own boss and leave the world of pub management behind.

Fifty residents enjoyed a Biodiversity Day, recently, thanks to involvement from one of our suppliers, Ground Control and £300 investment from Sovereign.

Chris is the team leader at the Foyer. For Starts at Home Day 2021, he talks about working through the pandemic, gaining accreditation for the Foyer and more.

We gave over £1,400 to Support U, a leading LGBTQ+ help and support service, as part of The Good Exchange’s mental health ‘Surviving to Thriving’ campaign,

St Pauls Carnival hosted a three-part virtual event celebrating Bristol’s African-Caribbean community and discussing the experiences of those impacted by Windrush.

Reanna joined our Youth Housing Panel last year. Growing up living in council housing, Reanna wanted to share her experiences with others.

Dawn is a confident, passionate, intelligent mum-of-one, and one of ten young people who have joined Sovereign’s new Youth Housing Forum.

An email from Sovereign asking Shawn to join our youth panel gave him the prompt he needed to get out there and make a difference.

We supported Zion Bristol with a £3,500 grant to adapt its entranceway to make it more inclusive.

We gave charity Pramalife £4,000 to supports its launch of Telephone Friendship Groups.

We supported Bristol's Window Wanderland, which provided resources for communities to set up their own magical illuminated window displays.

Ebony Taylorson juggles a busy schedule. Despite this, she joined our Youth Housing Panel. Here she tells us more about why signing up was important to her.

Sophie has worked in tenancy management for seven years as a Housing Officer she talks about her decision to join the Aspire programme, and develop her leadership skills for the future.

Stevie Chadwick talks about her apprenticeship in our Communities team and how the HDN mentoring programme helped her 'step up'.

We’ve supported a new commemorative garden at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Sovereign supported self-employed Nicola with a £700 grant to focus her counselling business on helping those with eating disorders.

This Spring, volunteers delivered spring-themed treats to 104 older people at risk of isolation.

More than one hundred hand-knitted chicks will be handed out by the Botley Community Larder along with fresh fruit and veg.

Kaylee is an apprentice plumber at Sovereign. She explains why she enjoys having a role where she can fix things. 

Abingdon and Witney college students have been writing postcards throughout lockdown to residents living at two Oxfordshire Housing for Older People schemes.

Older people from Basingstoke gained a bunch of fun new pals during lockdown, thanks to the sterling efforts of charity InCommon.

Sovereign has helped the West Wight Men in Sheds, based on the Isle of Wight, with a £500 grant to insure their new community van.

We invested £1,000 in Oasis-Talk’s online wellbeing course giving 10 over-55s, who have been shielding at home the opportunity to share their experiences.

Neighbourhood community group Cllick approached us to help facilitate a Seeds and Feeds edible growing and gardening project for one of our housing for older people schemes.

Dementia Friendly West Berkshire (DFWB) has launched a new website thanks to £700 funding from Sovereign Housing Association.

Writing has been a passion for Ryan and moving into his Sovereign home and living alone for the first time gave him the time he needed to focus on his future career plans.

Picking up the keys to your new home is a big moment, but for 30-year-old Samatar Maygag it was life changing.