Our Strategic Plan
Evolve Housing’s Strategic Plan is structured around four key goals:
- Grow capacity
- Enhance business practices
- Sustain tenancies
- Strengthen communities
These goals establish the framework and form our key focus areas for improvement that will help make our vision and purpose a reality. They help to define what success will look like for our organisation, and we therefore also refer to them as critical success factors.
Strategic objectives identify how we will deliver on these goals over a four year term – from 2016 to 2020 – breaking them down into achievable and measurable steps. They are the specific intentions that will lead us to achieve each goal. We have identified metrics for each activity to track how we are performing against each goal, and so we can recognise where we need to adjust our approaches or directions to achieve better results.
The strategic objectives also help us in developing more detailed operation plans. We outline how we will deliver on each objective, and how we will measure success. We will regularly assess these focus areas and activities over the four year planning period so that they remain relevant and appropriate.
We are committed to providing even more homes and support services to better serve our communities. We carefully manage company resources (such as finance and staff), to be able to successfully build on our successes. Our systems are agile and scalable, and we have processes in place so that we can continue to grow while maintaining existing levels of performance.
The ability to grow and continually improve means we need to be driven by innovation; to be able to assess risk and benefits quickly and effectively; to and build on existing sources and develop new revenue streams; to continue to attract potential customers, partners, and investors; to create successful partnerships and access available funding; and to secure tenders and bids aligned to our investment strategy.
Four key strategic objectives to grow our capacity
Objective | How we will do this | Success Measure |
Increase and diversify revenue streams |
| By 2020:
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Build on our partnerships |
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Grow balance sheet |
| Value of balance sheet by 2020:
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Increase and diversify our housing portfolio |
| Properties under management by 2020:
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We live and work in a changing operating environment, with our sector and clients facing increased challenges. We therefore need to be agile – to match continually changing conditions and appropriately scale our operations; efficient – using our resources to maximum effect; and an employer of choice – attracting and retaining quality staff who share and contribute to our organisation’s vision and purpose.
Enhancing our business practice requires much more than embedding a compliance approach where we meet, or even exceed, the requirements set by policies and regulations. It requires us to embrace a culture of innovation and focus on best practice and continual improvement. This approach means we will not only remain viable and relevant, but that we will be able to maximise our value and the impact of the services we provide.
Objective | How we will do this | Success Measure |
Invest in our people |
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Be a governance leader |
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Drive efficiencies |
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Be business ready for opportunities |
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Secure, affordable housing plays a critical role in improving the lives and well-being of vulnerable Australians. Evolve’s Journey Home® recognises that the journey to improved well-being and greater independence is different for each person. For some, providing stable, affordable housing improves their ability to engage with education, participate in training and employment opportunities and can assist residents in transitioning to greater level of financial independence, and reduced reliance on government assistance.
For others, particularly people living with a significant disability, or older or frail people, transitioning from social housing into affordable or private rental may not be feasible. For those tenants, more appropriate goals might include gaining stability and skills to increase their social participation in their community; providing the skills to manage issues so they can maintain a tenancy; and/or improving their health and well-being.
There is not one single response to building the capacity of residents, and assisting them to sustain their tenancies; but must include a range of initiatives. An essential element of Evolve’s role in this regard is to identify residents’ support needs and link them with appropriate support services before issues escalate.
Our core service is to deliver quality housing, including tenancy and property services that best meet the needs of our residents. We will continue to monitor tenancy satisfaction levels and refine asset and tenancy management practices and policies to meet or exceed industry benchmarks.
Evolve will continue to strengthen partnerships with support services to improve residents ability to maintain their tenancies and deliver programs and services that build capacity.
Objective | How we will do this | Success Measure |
Respond effectively to residents’ housing needs |
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Ensure housing and support services sustain tenancies |
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Support residents on The Journey Home ® |
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Influence housing policy to drive improved outcomes |
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Strong communities are socially inclusive, connected, resilient, just, and prosperous. Building the capacity of people and their material resources increases their potential to participate and contribute within their community and the economy.
As well as providing safe, secure and affordable housing, there are other support services that increase residents’ capacity to engage with and contribute to the community. These include building life skills, improving health and wellbeing, education, financial management advice, and providing access to training and skills for employment in growth industries.
Key focus areas for strengthening communities:
- improving health and wellbeing and enhancing life skills to build confidence, resilience, sustainable relationships, financial management, and more;
- facilitating opportunities for social interaction and belonging;
- proactively participating in opportunities with private sector partners to create additional social and affordable housing in mixed tenure, mixed income developments with access to education and employment opportunities;
- using good design to facilitate interaction;
- exploring opportunities to create employment for our residents through delivery of our services and in social enterprise opportunities in our developments;
- supporting residents to access training, education and employment initiatives;
- using an evidence-based approach and outcomes measurement to determine which programs and initiatives have the greatest impact and best assist residents, so we can effectively prioritise our resources.
We will build on our partnerships to access resources, capabilities, programs and/or funding to collectively achieve greater outcomes for individuals and the communities in which they live.
Objective | How we will do this | Success Measure |
Measure and maximise positive social outcomes |
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Enhance social and economic participation of our residents |
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Partner to optimise impact investment |
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Develop and participate in programs to deliver integrated communities |
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