VIVID Plus

The projects and partnerships we support through VIVID Plus are highly targeted to our main areas of focus and we work closely with partner agencies, charities and community groups. If you have a project idea or are already running a community focused project and would like to know more about funding through VIVID Plus, you can find out more about our Community Investment Fund. This fund has been launched in Partnership with Action Hampshire.

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.

You can view who sits on the VIVID Plus Board here.

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.