Plymouth’s homeless hold the key to shelter success story

There is a huge range of positive work taking place in Plymouth, where the HCA is investing significantly in some truly transformational projects.

I blogged about one of the agency’s most important and pressing schemes at North Prospect a few days ago and about the wider work ongoing in the city last month.

On the day planning councillors were approving North Prospect regeneration proposals, partners were busy putting the final touches to an update on a very newsworthy development for homeless people elsewhere in the city.

When complete, the BCHA scheme in Battery Street will provide shelter for 46 of the city’s most vulnerable people. Around 30 of these people are also benefitting from training and employment opportunities offered by specialist contractors working on the construction phase.

Managed in the right way, this project offers the ‘human interest’ material that the media love. Who better, after all, to tell the story of the importance of Battery Street than the people working on it?

As planned, a trainee was strongly featured in the announcement alongside the partners, giving them all the opportunity for their messages to form part of a more prominent spread of coverage. As well as a piece in The Herald (a solid supporter of the scheme), Battery Street has featured on radio, TV and online in recent days.

I know BCHA’s communications manager worked hard to pull all the strands of this activity together to make it work for all partners. I am sure they can see that the effort was well worth it.

Some computer generated images of the scheme (courtesy of BCHA) can be seen below.

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