National Careers Week
Posted on: 06 Mar 23
Is A Career In Housing For You?
A question that you may have asked yourself at some point. To celebrate National Careers Week, which runs from 6 March – 11 March, four of our team including our Chief Executive have written honest and inspiring accounts of what their role involves, why they joined Nehemiah and how dedication, determination, support and the sheer love of housing has driven them to be where they are today! We hope their stories inspire you and help you to learn more about careers in housing.
Llewellyn has been the Chief Executive since Nehemiah Housing Association was formed in 1989.
What does your role involve?
My current role as Chief Executive means I have ultimate responsibility for the organisation, supporting the board and leading the staff that work within Nehemiah. I am responsible in the main for the long-term strategy, financial viability and working culture
Tell us about your experience/career as a black/BAME person in housing. Where did you start from and your journey?
I started my career as a social worker in Wolverhampton. Following that I became the Director of a voluntary organisation called the Wolverhampton African Caribbean Development Agency which was involved in community development work and supporting organisations who wanted to respond to social issues in the community as well as encouraging business start-ups.
Midlands entrepreneur, Tony Sealey who in the 80s was a consultant involved with the work I was doing and was instrumental in me considering a career in housing. He said it was a career that offers longevity so that is really how I came to be interested in my now chosen career path.
At the same time I was a member of The Church of God of Prophecy and the Church leaders spotted that were a large number of people in the church congregation who were retiring at that time (in the early 80s) and were in housing that was not suitable for them. At the same time they didn’t want to go into what was then termed an old people’s home. The leadership of the church felt they needed to do something to support these people – the people we now call the Windrush generation.
So, that was the driver of the start of Nehemiah Housing and being able to do something to care for this older generation. Around this time The Commission For Racial Equality also published their research about discrimination and disadvantage in housing which led to the creation of a strategy by the then Housing Corporation to respond to disadvantages in housing and in particular in relation to the poor housing conditions of black people.
With all those things happening at the same time, I was approached by Bishop Wilton Powell and the late Bishop Fearon about the work I was doing. They told me that the church was being encouraged by local authorities across the West Midlands to set up a small housing association to respond to the needs of the Windrush generation and they needed somebody who could help them to set up the organisation and to get it through the registration process so that they could build a retirement scheme for older black people.
On the basis of Tony Sealey’s encouragement, the Wolverhampton Taskforce at that time was quite keen to support young black people like myself have a career in housing so they provided the funding, the NHF had a programme in place called the Path National Training Scheme I could utilise and the placement came from Coventry Churches Housing Association (CCHA). So, all of those things came together and I took the opportunity to get involved in housing.
It’s a long story but that’s how I got involved in housing. I was trained at CCHA particularly for the role of leadership in social housing and the rest is the history as they say.
I started as the first employee of Nehemiah Housing Association in 1989 and I am still here at the helm of Nehemiah Housing – over 30 years later.
Marcia is one of our newest recruits having joined the Nehemiah team in November 2021. She joined us after spending four years at Taylor Wimpey as a Customer Service Manager.
| What was your job before joining Nehemiah and where did you work? | Customer Service Manager – Taylor Wimpey |
| What do you enjoy the most about your job? | I love working with our tenants, particularly those who want to get involved and make a difference. Providing an open and accessible platform for them to share ideas and then working to make them a reality. I also love the challenge of engaging areas, which were once deemed to be ‘hard to reach’ and seeing the transformation of the tenant’s perception of their community and the place they live. |
| What does your job involve on a day to day basis | To co-ordinate, support and promote tenant involvement in the design and delivery of Housing Services. To reflect tenant priorities within strategic planning and deliver continuous improvement and striking the balance between the tenants choice and assisting in corporate strategy. Working in partnership with tenants/service users and staff to identify service requirements and priorities. Developing a wide range of engagement opportunities and promote the benefits of participation to increase customer involvement. Working closely with tenant groups, partnering/third party organisations and encouraging participation and sharing best practice. Being conscious of the tenant participation and training budget and to process financial payments in accordance with financial guidelines. |
| What career advice would you give a young person starting out in Housing today? | The pathway to housing isn’t always a straight one. I have acquired a lot of skills that has led to my current preferred career choice. But the common thread has always been the customer and wanted to provide an exceptional service and to deliver a brand that your proud of As a customer engagement officer, it is an excellent position where you acquire skills in all areas of housing, a bit like a GP of the organisation Within this role and to be successful, you must have passion for helping people, along with drive and enthusiasm to have the ability to get thing done and not easily swayed by challenges. |
Lorraine is the Scheme Manager at our Charles Pearson Court and Henry Court retirement schemes and has been with Nehemiah since 2000. Before joining Nehemiah, she worked in a Nursing Home.
| What do you enjoy the most about your job? | Meeting new people and seeing the progress new tenants make from when they first move in. I also like the variety in my job – there are lots of different areas to this job. |
| What does your job involve on a day to day basis? | Well-being calls to each tenant. Visits to flats for inspections and seeing frail tenants who are not mobile. Reporting and following up repairs, Health and Safety inspections, sign posting tenants to supporting agencies, planning activities and updating tenants files. Lots of Admin. |
| What career advice would you give a young person starting out in Housing today? | There is opportunity for growth. Work with diverse communities. It is incredibly rewarding. There is lots of job satisfaction in re-homing people. You will need lots of patience and compassion and you must be respectful and caring. |
Bernadette is Nehemiah’s Reporting Accountant and has been working at Nehemiah since April 2007. Prior to joining Nehemiah she worked for a firm of Chartered Accountants as a Business Administrator, doing bookkeeping, management accounting and payroll internally and assisting external customers when required.
| What do you enjoy the most about your job? | The variety of work, every day brings different challenges and projects that are varied and challenging. This means learning about different elements of social housing. It’s not all about the numbers. Dealing with tenants and proving them with clear and consistent advice is extremely rewarding. |
| What does your job involve on a day to day basis? | My job role is to help ensure the accurate processing of financial transactions, I also help to provide support to the housing and property service teams on all aspects of financial control and asset management, in finance we have an open-door attitude and are always available to assist our colleagues. I deal with Contracts and Service Charge calculations, this sometimes leads to consultations with tenants, it’s nice to meet tenants face to face and answer questions directly, we are keen to help tenants understand their rent and service charge calculations. I look after the property portfolios and advise tenants on the Right to Buy and Right to Acquire Schemes, helping tenants navigate their way to home ownership is a very rewarding part of my role. A main part of my role is the production of accurate Management Accounts this enables the generation of key performance indicators, budgeting outcomes and benchmarking results to help the business with future decision making. There are always new projects to work on, such as assisting with grant applications for things like energy efficiency in homes. Working as part of the Finance team can be a demanding and rewarding role, we always have deadlines to meet and new challenges to overcome, but you know ultimately, your hard work will be of benefit to both tenants and staff. |
| What career advice would you give a young person starting out in Housing today? | Get involved with as many different aspects of Housing that you can, a good overview of how the business works is the key to understanding how to may a difference to the tenants you serve. Keep up to date with the changing legislation and always remember to look at things from the tenants point of view. |
We want to help you to develop your career in housing and we have set up the Nehemiah Academy to help to do this. The Nehemiah Academy provides work placements and graduate internships together with grants of up to £1,500 to help with the cost of studying.
Learn more about our Academy here or visit the National Careers Week website for more information and resources.
