Advocacy our way

Our mission is grounded in The Rule which calls on us to, not just to relieve hardship, but to address its causes. The advocacy plan ensures that what our members, volunteers and employees see through their work is used in a structured way to influence the issues which lead to homelessness and poverty. The plan ensures that this insight is used in a structured, deliberate way to influence policy, system changes and government decisions. 

The Society takes what members and volunteers see every day and turns it into evidence, stories and policy asks for government. This evidence gets pushed through campaigns, media, research and direct engagement with Ministers and MPs. In simple terms, those frontline stories lead to a structured advocacy campaign, which then leads to policy change.

The evidence points to four things — increase supply of social and affordable homes, get people into that housing as quickly as possible, introduce prevention policies to stop people becoming homeless in the first place and invest in the social capital that helps people stay housed. When these are working together, we see results.

Our focus is a long-term housing strategy and prevention framework, developed in partnership with the Society, that delivers more social and affordable homes and invests in the social capital that keeps people housed. We bring a large, trusted volunteer base, deep community reach and on-the-ground insight into what is working and what is not. That makes us a credible partner not just in shaping policy, but in helping government deliver it on the ground.