Eastlight is proud to be the Housing Sector Lead and Founding Partner of nationally renowned disability organisation, Purple. Our joint approach with Purple helps us to drive equality and accessibility for disabled people in the housing sector and beyond.

At Eastlight, we have committed to continuing our progressive work with Purple since our partnership began in 2020, by engaging with customers, partners and staff, with a clear focus on disability inclusion.

We work with a wide range of individuals with disabilities and complex needs, which helps us to create an accessible environment that supports our customers and people and build a more inclusive society.

The Purple Tuesday is a global social movement is highlighted each year by a celebratory day – the first Tuesday of November – also known as Purple Tuesday.

We’re proud to have been awarded ‘Disability Confident Leader’ (Level 3) status – the highest level in the Government’s Disability Confident Employer scheme.

Progress on our disability inclusivity journey to date includes:

• Successfully completing the Disability Confident status self-assessment, taking all the core actions to become a Disability Confident Leader
• Exploring additional actions that we can take to support our people through our Just Being You reverse-mentoring programme
• Encouraging job applications from diverse candidates by offering an interview to those who declare they have a disability, if the person meets the minimum criteria for the role
• Providing reasonable adjustments during the application process, where possible.

We remain committed to being the catalyst for significant change by having open conversations with all our staff and residents to reduce inequality between disabled and non-disabled people. We also continue to improve our services and ways of working so that we are an accessible, inclusive and leading employer for diversity.

That’s why we are working closely with ECL (Essex Cares) to change how we recruit, to ensure neurodivergent individuals are supported throughout their application and time at Eastlight.

As part of our partnership, we provide the following for individuals applying for roles through the Neurodiverse Recruitment Programme:

• A ‘meet and greet’ before the interview stage to visit our Braintree headquarters, Eastlight House, and see what a typical working day looks like
• An opportunity to meet the recruiting manager before the interview stage to find out more about the role
• Additional adjustments throughout the recruitment process
• An interview where the panel has been briefed on interviewing neurodivergent individuals, with the assistance of ECL
• A dedicated support coach from ECL for the first six months of employment. ECL provides high-quality social care services in Essex, London Borough of Havering and West Sussex, aimed at wellbeing, prevention and increasing independence.

ECL provides high-quality social care services in Essex, London Borough of Havering and West Sussex, aimed at wellbeing, prevention and increasing independence.

Championing equality, diversity and inclusion is important to us.

Eastlight plays a vital role within BuildEast, a partnership of housing associations working together to meet the needs and ambitions of the people and communities across the East of England and beyond.

Agreed in May 2021, the BuildEast Charter outlines our joint commitments for leaders, employers and landlords. As such, the Chair of BuildEast and our Chief Executive, Emma Palmer, leads on raising awareness about the importance of collaboratively enhancing equality, diversity and inclusion efforts across the housing sector – regionally and nationally – in line with the National Housing Federation’s Code of Governance.

What will the charter achieve?

• Increased knowledge and understanding across the region
• More diversity in our workforces, within apprenticeships/traineeships, and on Boards and Committees
• Empowering people to mentor leaders to foster understanding on a wide range of lived experience, leading to improvements based on people’s differing needs.

Everyone has the right to a stable home, without prejudice or judgement, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. We recognise the challenges members of our LGBTQ+ communities face, and we are fiercely committed to enabling equal access to our housing and services for all.

The HouseProud Pledge aims to ensure that our residents from the LGBTQ+ community feel rightly safe, secure and free to express their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in their own home, free from fear or prejudice.

At Eastlight, we support HouseProud by working with involved LGBTQ+ residents and colleagues, fostering positive relationships. We also actively encourage our people to ‘bring their whole selves to work’ through events, programmes and networking groups, so that they can ensure our residents’ housing needs are met.

We aim to achieve the HouseProud Pledge Pioneer accreditation by:

• Ensuring LGBTQ+ customers have a voice at executive / strategic level
• Increasing LGBTQ+ visibility in our workplace and communities
• Initiating staff training to improve the lives of our staff members and residents from the LGBTQ+ community.s/traineeships, and on Boards and Committees

By being a member of the social enterprise and membership organisation, Housing Diversity Network (HDN), Eastlight learns from and collaborates with like-minded partners in the housing sector who are equally committed to addressing inequality, maximising the potential of their workforce and catering to the diverse needs of the communities we all serve.