Pinnacle PSG is committed to improving the performance of frontline services at reduced costs while creating lasting and sustainable benefits and opportunities for the local communities in which we work. We have worked with residents, community groups, charities and our clients to develop a range of initiatives that protect the environment, create life opportunities, tackle important issues affecting communities such as unemployment and anti-social behaviour and deliver customer satisfaction at all levels.
Green spaces and the environment
• City meadows and biodiversity – In consultation with residents and environmental advisory groups, we have designed, constructed and helped to maintain a number of exciting green spaces on estates which have been used to attract a greater variety of flora and fauna into urban areas. For instance, in partnership with the local Brockley community, we developed a butterfly garden on the Foxborough Gardens estate, and an inner-city meadow on the Hallfield Estate in Westminster. Both sites have been used by local schools to educate their pupils on conservation and wildlife habitats, as well as brightening up drab areas of estates.
• Community gardens and play areas – We have developed numerous green havens and play zones for communities at no cost to residents or our clients. Examples include: a sensory garden in Canning Town, which transformed an ASB hotspot on an estate into a multi-sensory garden for residents, young and old; a new courtyard garden and pergola for residents within a sheltered housing scheme in Walsall; and a playground for children of the Ivybridge estate in Hounslow.
• Cycle cinema and educational workshops – In Westminster and Woking we have held over 30 cycle cinema events whereby films are shown in public spaces on estates and powered by bicycles. These events have drawn huge crowds and have been replicated across many estates, drawing residents’ attention to the benefits of ‘green’ and renewable energy as well as promoting cycling as a sport and sustainable form of transport.
Health and wellbeing
• Lambeth cricket initiative – We sponsor Surrey County Cricket Club and support the club’s efforts to grow the game of cricket in inner London with 495 local children attending cricket events last year. We support the development of the game through the Pinnacle Project, ‘Reach Your Pinnacle’ scholarship and the Howzat Project, a partnership with local schools to get children interested in sport, fitness and wellbeing.
• School football kits – We are keen to support clubs that encourage young people into sport and have sponsored the kits of three football clubs in Lambeth, Slough and Stoke-on-Trent.
• Healthy eating – We have used our gardening and landscaping knowledge to create zones within estates that inspire residents, local schools children and nurseries to take an active interest in healthy eating. For instance, in Brockley, and in partnership with the local TRAs, we have created an orchard and kitchen garden for local residents. In Lambeth, Hounslow, Westminster and many other areas of the UK we have created allotment beds for residents to provide them with space to grow their own herbs and vegetables. In Maida Vale, the vegetables grown in the allotment beds were used in a community Christmas dinner for elderly people.
Anti-social behaviour (ASB) and community cohesion
• Community fun days – We hold numerous fun days for residents throughout the year, all of which have an intergenerational and multi-cultural focus to help to promote community cohesion. In all seven villages that we manage within Westminster, we have organised annual summer fun days which have included talent competitions, bouncy castles, face painting, international dance lessons and crafts – these events, on average, attract over 200 people. In Woking we created a city farm on the Sheerwater estate and community food festival which encouraged residents to bring along dishes which best represented their cultures. At CTR Triangle in Canning Town, Pinnacle PSG worked alongside the TMO to host a community picnic to help to integrate families from across the estate.
• Boxing clubs – Boxing clubs have been set up in partnership with local clubs to help to combat ASB among young people on the Mozart estate in Westminster and CTR Triangle in Canning Town. These clubs along with other initiatives such as a ‘design a poster’ campaign around anti-gang violence and youth clubs have had a marked impact on levels of ASB on the Mozart estate in particular, an area suffering the effects of gang violence.
• Art projects – We have used art to help residents express their views on various issues affecting their community. Westbourne Park in Westminster has invited residents to come together to create artwork that will decorate the hoardings around a major regeneration project in their neighbourhood — the art will depict their emotions and hopes for the project. In Woking, residents created pieces of abstract artwork to decorate a dull, concrete balcony in Sheerwater which runs along the area’s high street.
The residents hope that by taking pride in their buildings and local environments, it will deter incidents of ASB.
• Working with the community – Our teams regularly meet with local safer neighbourhood teams, neighbourhood wardens, TRAs and anti-crime groups to create strategies to combat ASB in communities • Resident engagement tenant and resident associations – We actively support the local TRAs in the areas in which we work, offering guidance on funding bids, resources for local projects and platforms on which to raise their concerns and ideas. We have also helped residents to establish TRAs in areas devoid of a resident voice. For instance, the number of TRAs has increased substantially since Pinnacle PSG began work in 2007. In Brockley we also hold regular residents steering group meetings where residents are able to raise issues around service standards and learn of new developments to contract specifications.
• Annual residents conference – Each year we hold two regional residents conferences which attract over 200 active residents from communities in which we work. The conferences aim to provide residents with a platform to share ideas and best practice and learn about key policies and tackling issues which may affect their communities from industry experts.
• Community initiatives cafe – For the past five years Pinnacle PSG has sponsored the Community Initiatives Cafe at the Charted Institute of Housing annual conference in Manchester; an area of the exhibition which showcases community projects and provides them a chance to win funding to further the initiatives. This year Pinnacle PSG donated £2,500 over the three days of the conference to a boxing scheme, an internet cafe and a community garden project.
• Work It – We have begun a pilot scheme in Westminster were we are offering long-term unemployed residents between the age of 18-25 six month’s work experience in housing management at Pinnacle PSG. The aim is to provide residents with work and life skills which will enable them to secure permanent positions in the near future. So far six residents are on the scheme.
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