Supporting Social Enterprise

Alpha and Outwork teams at Weir Brae, Comber

Making Every Pound Go Further

Alpha spends over £5m every year to maintain our homes and run our sheltered schemes. Like every housing association, we want to be high-quality and competitively priced. But as a charity and social enterprise, we also want to achieve a social return on our investment.

That is why we seek to work with other social enterprises. We have joined forces with Outwork, a grounds maintenance firm run by social enterprise The Turnaround Project. Outwork will provide grounds maintenance on our 40 sites until at least March 2022. The partnership enables Outwork to help people in the criminal justice system turn their lives around through transitional employment opportunities. Also, by providing high-quality grounds maintenance, Outwork’s trainees are helping create more attractive gardens for our tenants to enjoy.

Alpha is a member of Social Enterprise NI. As well as extending our partnership with Outwork, we hope to develop new relationships with other social enterprises in future.

Outwork planting native trees at Lowry Court

Outwork Branch Out at Lowry Court

Alpha Housing and Outwork marked the launch of their partnership with a large-scale planting project at the Lowry Court sheltered housing scheme in south Belfast. In December 2020, hundreds of native trees and shrubs were planted in the property’s grounds, a former arboretum.

As well as enhancing the quality of life for residents, the new trees and hedges provide valuable new wildlife habitats on the site adjoining the Annadale Embankment and Lagan Valley Regional Park.