Orbit has appointed an Impact and Performance Manager as part of its new strategy to support the wellbeing of customers.
Abdel Najid joins the leading social housing provider and housebuilder with over 30 years’ experience across both private and not for profit sectors, including most recently as Head of Place Management at South Bank Employers Group and South Bank BID.
Abdel will be responsible for evaluating the impact of Orbit’s Better Days services, using insight to inform future programme planning and engaging with external stakeholders to help Orbit customers overcome social and economic challenges.
Better Days, which is open to all Orbit customers, offers free support on a range of issues including managing finances, employment and skills, mental health and general wellbeing.
Abdel said: “As more and more people reach out for help during these challenging times, I’m really proud to be joining an organisation that is committed to doing everything it can to ensure that customers get the help they need. Orbit is already offering its customers a raft of support through the Better Days programme and by using the insight we gather from providing these services we can ensure that we remain responsive and agile to what customers need and offer them the right support at the right time.”
Abdel’s role is part of Orbit’s new Thriving Communities Strategy, which aims to ensure that Orbit creates maximum social value within the communities in which it operates.
In 2021/22, over 5,000 Orbit customers, alongside a cohort of non-Orbit customers living in and around Orbit communities, accessed its Better Days services. The strategy aims to build on this success and allow for increased participation in the design and co-production of the Better Days provision, involving communities and customers in determining and acting on local priorities.
Recently, Orbit announced that fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA) would be providing specialist energy advice for its customers and that it was launching a Welfare Benefits Advice Service which will support around 1,200 tenants and homeowners every year, who need help to understand and apply for the benefits that they’re eligible for as well as providing coaching about how to become more financially resilient.
Other support measures introduced by Orbit include commissioning fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA) to provide specialist energy advice, a new cost-of-living education hub on Orbit’s customer website, a furnished home pilot to help customers out of furniture poverty, and an increase in capacity to Orbit’s existing mental health support Breathing Space commissioned with Mind and Aspire4u.
