• Project name: Circle is More Than Housing: Empowering Tenants Through Digital Accessibility
• Lead organisation: Circle VHA

Statement of support

Circle VHA’s Tenant Communications and Engagement Strategy (TCES), led by the Tenant Advisory Group (TAG), ensures tenants are informed, supported, and empowered. The TCES action plan included communicating with tenants in timely, effective and accessible ways, by utilising a wide range of communication methods, including the website. Circle became the first Approved Housing Body (AHB) in Ireland to deliver a fully inclusive website for visually impaired tenants by achieving a European standard for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 compliance. Enhancing this milestone, Circle introduced the Recite Me toolbar, offering translation into 100+ languages, text-to-speech functionality, and customisation tools for neurodivergent tenants and those with learning disabilities. This initiative demonstrates Circle’s commitment to inclusivity and effective communication for all.

Tenant feedback and consultations revealed a critical need for improved accessibility. The main finding outlined many of Circle’s tenants don’t have English as a primary language, which created a barrier to information sharing and accessibility for many users. As part of the consultation process, it was identified that there are over 50 different languages spoken throughout Circle tenants’ homes.

Circle’s TAG identified the need to develop an accessible website that could cater for all tenants’ needs, from visual and hearing impairment, language barriers to learning difficulties and other neurodivergences. The findings were brought to TAG and linked to the need for accessible information, that was identified as part of the TCES action plan.

TAG’s purpose is to work in partnership with Circle to:

• Improve service delivery by providing feedback to Circle
• Keep tenants informed
• Oversee the implementation of the TCES action plan.

To action findings, Circle partnered with Vision Ireland and Inclusion and Accessibility Labs, to build and deliver an inclusive and user-friendly digital experience through the website. Following many months of reviewing each area of the website, overseen by TAG, Circle became the first AHB to deliver a fully inclusive website, with WCAG 2.1 compliance.

Circle are committed to creating inclusive communities and are working on a project called Quality In our Diversity (QID). The purpose of the QID project is to promote and achieve inclusivity, equity and diversity in the services provided by Circle and to develop an accreditation pathway for others within the sector to do the same. Circle’s QID coordination group, which consists of tenants from minority-ethnic backgrounds and staff, proposed the idea of installing an assistive toolbar on the website. This proposal was supported, overseen and tested by TAG.

The coordination group researched existing assistive accessibility solutions and found Recite Me which met the requirements identified during the discovery phase.

The Recite Me toolbar caters for tenants who previously found the website inaccessible by assisting with the following:

• Translating website content and PDF’s on the website into over 100 different languages with 65 languages supported by the text to speech function.
• Supporting neurodivergent tenants by providing customisation and styling options for the website such as text colour, sizing's, font style and spacing.
• Supporting tenants with learning disabilities with tools including; a ruler, screen mask, magnifier, margins, page summariser and dictionary.

Recite Me continues to be promoted to tenants and staff by conducting a variety of internal and external messaging, this includes training on the software, social media campaigns, references within the tenant quarterly newsletter and through face-to-face communication. To continue to raise awareness of the accessibility tools available to assist tenants’ needs, the QID coordination group held a webinar series with a Recite Me staff member showcasing the functionality of the assistive toolbar to all Circle staff. This enabled Circle to ensure all communications are compliant with WCAG standards and are accessible to all tenants.

Outcomes and achievements

Circle’s website now serves over 5,500 residents, ensuring accessibility for all users through providing inclusive access to vital information. Throughout 2024, the Recite Me toolbar has been accessed on Circle’s website by 2,630 unique users, with 8,372 pages viewed using the Recite Me toolbar. 53 per cent of users utilised translation tools with Portuguese, Russian, Moldovan and Arabic as the most popular languages. In one year, the screen reading function was used 9,987 times, styling tools 450 times and reading aids 208 times. The data provided shapes future service delivery and ensures Circle’s commitment to inclusivity and effective communication for tenants and staff.

Circle tenants and staff have provided very positive feedback on the updated website and the Recite Me toolbar:

Circle tenant, David stated, “Circle’s website has been made more accessible for people like me with vision impairment. It is now easier to use the website by using Recite Me’s screen reading function to navigate all information available. Circle are doing fantastic work to make sure the services are accessible for everyone.”

Gavin, Circle’s housing manager stated, “Circle’s frontline staff can better assist tenants by translating important tenancy documents and agreements with Recite Me, ensuring accessibility for all.”

• Project name: St Patrick's Regeneration
• Lead organisation: Radius Housing

Statement of support

Radius Housing is a social enterprise managing over 13,500 homes and supporting approximately 33,000 households across Northern Ireland. Our purpose is to improve lives and communities through our homes, care, and support. The key message behind our mission is: Everyone has a place.

Once an army barracks, St Patrick’s is Radius Housing’s new flagship shared housing development in Ballymena, with a focus on building a ‘shared community’ consisting of 135 social housing units.

Given the time needed to create a shared housing scheme of this scale, a key challenge was ensuring communications engaged and informed a wide and varied audience.

Strategy and campaign

Audience and stakeholders

The audience consisted of potential tenants, existing tenants interested in a reallocation, local residents, contractors, government departments, and various third parties. This included construction firm MJ McBride, plus NI Housing Executive, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council and community stakeholders who form the Ballymena Advisory Group.

Engaging assets

The communications, development and housing teams worked closely together to produce a series of shareable assets, that could be delivered online and in person, that communicated the phased progress of the development, as it evolved from a sprawling construction site to a new shared housing community.

These assets were primarily video pieces, consisting of drone and eye level footage, plus interviews with key personnel. Sharing via social channels allowed Radius to effectively communicate the phased approach to both constructing and populating this new community. Video assets had play counts over 1,500 with engagement on St Patrick’s related content reaching over 21 per cent.

Link the Town

Radius oversaw key infrastructure improvements in the area, including a new link road connecting Ballymena with St Patrick’s.

To celebrate the opening of the new road, Radius held a Link the Town event in March featuring a community fun run along Ballymena’s new ‘golden mile’, which attracted 100s of runners to take part.

Coverage of the event included Ballymena Guardian 13,725 (Chronicle, Leader, Guardian and Northern Constitution newspapers) and LoveBallymena (website avg reach one million pcm and Facebook 117.4k followers).

Public events

The delivery of in-person events, such as the Information Breakfast held in May of 2024 at the Adair Arms Hotel in Ballymena, was a coordinated approach involving multiple teams within Radius Housing.

This event gave future tenants and residents the opportunity hear from Radius staff from various departments about construction phases, handover schedules, plus information on energy efficiency of the new housing units, as well as local partnerships and community initiatives that will ensure the success of this new shared housing development. Over 120 people attended including councilors, community groups and representatives from the PSNI.

Wider community engagement

In attendance at the breakfast event was Mid and East Antrim councilor Jackson Minford. Impressed by the presentation and information session, Jackson extended an invite to Radius to speak at the local Slemish Probus group – allowing Radius to not just speak about St Patrick’s, but also showcase to influential members of the senior community in Ballymena the work Radius does for older tenants in terms of home adaptations and helping ensure older people can live longer in their own home. This well received session was presented by a team which included a development manager and a manager from our Staying Put Service.

St Patrick’s microsite

A key initiative was spearheaded by Radius communities officer Lisa Mooney, to create a microsite that would encapsulate the story of St Patrick’s through a series of video pieces delivered by “ordinary people with extraordinary stories”, highlighting the diverse make-up of the people who contribute to a thriving local community.

Outcomes and achievements

A project of this scale and timeframe required a coordinated, joined up, approach in communicating key milestones and progress updates to a varied audience.

• Engagement with Radius social media channels was very positive, being amongst the highest performing digital content shared by Radius in 2024.
• Public information and community events attracted hundreds of participants with an interest in the new development.
• Community advocates invited Radius to provide further outreach events for local residents.
• A legacy ‘time capsule’ microsite that will also act as a central hub keeping new residents of St. Patrick’s up to date with future developments such as the new leisure centre and community facilities in the years ahead.

The continued success and positive feedback to the ongoing communications for St Patrick’s will provide a foundation for future communication planning for similarly scaled housing developments in 2025 and beyond.

• Project name: Apex - communicating with impact
• Lead organisation: Apex Housing Association

Statement of support

Apex Housing Association (Apex) prides itself on being about ‘more than housing’ and its ongoing communication with tenants and residents is testament to that.

During 2024, Apex’s small communications team produced attractive and easy-to-read publications, delivered engaging online campaigns, improved the usefulness and accessibility of the Apex website, grew the organisation’s Facebook page and achieved positive media coverage.

Easy-to-read publications

The Apex Observer is Apex’s tenant newsletter, published twice a year. Stories are short and the design is simple, to ensure readers engage with the important news, updates and photos contained inside.

Primarily a digital publication, The Apex Observer is distributed via text message to around 6,000 tenants and residents. However, Apex acknowledges that online communication does not appeal to everyone, and so hard copies of the newsletter are posted to tenants over the age of 60 and those living in our supported living accommodation.

‘Connected Tenants’ provide feedback on the most recent edition of The Apex Observer twice a year at tenant network meetings, and suggestions for future stories are welcomed. Since adopting the ‘digital’ style in 2020, feedback has been positive from tenants. The Apex Observer drives one of the largest proportions of traffic to the Apex website.

Engaging online campaigns

As an organisation, Apex recognises the challenges, concerns and interests of our tenants, residents and communities. Our online campaigns aim to educate, support and entertain.

During 2024, Apex campaigns covered scam awareness, safe lending, energy saving, gas safety, tenant engagement, the move to universal credit (UC) and #ChristmasAtApex.

Apex’s participation in ‘Talk Money Week’ was a significant campaign during the year. During each day of the week, Apex featured one thing on its website and social media channels to help tenants and residents boost their financial wellbeing. The information was wide ranging and covered pension credit, child trust funds, disability benefits and a video testimonial from a tenant helped by Apex with the move to UC.

During 2024, Apex also refreshed its original ‘featured scheme’ campaign with a new video format. Every fortnight, Apex posts a testimonial from a tenant or resident from an Apex supported living scheme. These posts on social media aim to raise awareness of the scheme, providing a human-interest story to connect with the online audience.

A website that’s improving

Apex’s communications team committed to improving the Apex website during 2024. An improvement action plan was created in May 2024 and an Ahrefs account set up to monitor the health of website.

Errors, broken links and slow loading images have been addressed on a continual basis. There have also been efforts to improve service delivery through the website, with the ‘Report a repair’ form being modified and a new ‘Report ASB’ form being launched in July 2024. More streamlined content in relation to tenant engagement replaced the existing information, with ‘Connected Tenants’ approving this content before going live.

Finally, a short survey was launched in November 2024 to help gather feedback on the usefulness and accessibility of the Apex website. Completed by over 200 people, the results will inform our website improvement work in 2025/2026.

An engaged Facebook page

A priority for Apex’s communications team during 2024 was to grow its Facebook page, launched in November 2023. As Apex’s main social media channel for communicating with tenants and residents, the page’s following has grown organically and consistently throughout the year.

The mix of content on the page has been well received by followers, with photographs from community events and scheme celebrations seeing the highest engagement rate. The increasing use of video content has worked well to attract new followers. Facebook’s messenger service has also enabled Apex to offer tenants and residents an alternative means of private contact.

Positive media coverage

During 2024, Apex’s communications team drafted and issued 13 proactive press releases to illustrate the positive work of Apex in local communities.

These press releases covered a diverse range of stories, including a high-profile Ministerial opening of a development in west Belfast, the 30th anniversary of a supported living scheme in Derry/Londonderry, an event to celebrate African culture and Apex’s support for the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan.

Outcomes and achievements

Apex’s communications team is small but mighty! Consisting of just two members, the team works across a large organisation that delivers services to over 17,000 tenants and residents in Northern Ireland.

During 2024, more than 83,000 users visited the Apex website, viewing 345,486 pages in total. The 2024 editions of The Apex Observer (June and December) were ranked in the top three for pageviews, contributing more than 27,000 pageviews to the website.

As a result of Apex’s website improvement action plan, the website’s health score recorded by Ahrefs site audit has drastically improved from a 78 (good rating) in June 2024 to a 100 (excellent rating) in December 2024.

Apex’s Facebook page has continued to grow. The page now has 1,554 followers just 13 months after launch. During the last three months of 2024, the page achieved 213,700 views and 12,600 profile visits. 61 people contacted the page privately during the year.

During 2024, Apex issued 13 proactive press releases to illustrate the positive work of Apex in local communities and responded to 18 queries from the media. Apex’s media relations efforts resulted in positive media coverage to the value of £184,566 (advertising value equivalent) and reached 3.2 million people.