Our Model
Commonweal exists to find housing-based solutions to wider social problems. How do we do this?
Feasibility studies
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Commonweal offers funding to frontline organisations for them to research whether their housing and support models are feasible. This research seeks to establish: i. financial viability; ii. capacity to deliver a solution; iii. justification of a solution.
Property-based pilot projects
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If a model proves feasible, we support our partners to initiate a full property-based pilot project that aims to tackle a social injustice through a new housing and support model. Projects tend to run for roughly seven years.
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Commonweal acts to facilitate and enable the project, but the project is ultimately owned and operated by our partners. We do this in two ways. We either provide existing Commonweal-owned property, or we purchase new property with the help of social investment. Commonweal has an engaged network of social investors that we tap it into, facilitating the funding for property acquisition to bring our partners’ projects to life.
Evaluation
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We are dedicated to not only searching for solutions but reflecting on the results, whether successful or not, and crucially sharing those results as far and wide as possible, helping to inform best practice across the sector and influence policy where possible.​ All of our projects undergo an independent final evaluation, with a publicly published report into all elements of the project. We care just as much about the elements that didn’t work as much as those that did.
Research
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​While we focus much of our resources and attention on the solutions to social injustice, we also want to understand the causes to them too.
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That’s why we have a dedicated research arm of the organisation, to enable new, groundbreaking research into different areas of social policy that intersects with housing. We want to dig deeper into the key injustices facing people in this country, and so while we commission our own research, we’re also interested in hearing the ideas for new research from the experts across the sector.