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We are committed to running our business in an ethical and sustainable manner so that our operations have a positive impact on society.

As an organisation that reinvests its profits, known as its surplus, into homes and services, we aim to create social value across all of our operations by managing our social, environmental and economic impact. This means investing in communities, delivering value for money for our stakeholders and creating local employment opportunities.

2020/2021 highlights - Year at a glance:

Sanctuary's 2020-21 community investment highlights - year at a glance

Community investment

We know that building strong communities is as important as providing a home. We want to help build resilience and connection with our customers and their communities.

We do this by:

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  • Supporting people to create conditions in which they can thrive, increasing their ability to adapt to adversity in a positive way.
  • Supporting people to maintain and build relationships, increasing connection to others, knowing their community, and feeling part of it.
  • Supporting community groups to access funding, advice, peer networks and training to build resilience and connection in our communities.


View our Sanctuary Community Investment Strategy 2021

How we work

We directly invest around £1.4 million each year through our Community Investment Fund and support to community groups and organisations that support our customers. In addition, we aim to attract at least £1 of external investment for every £1 that we directly invest. Community volunteers play a vital role providing their time and skills to projects as part of this external investment, this commitment from them helps projects to be community led and sustainable. Other external investment comes through local charitable funds, national grants and social value from our building contractor and supplier network. We aspire for our investment to be community-led and sustainable, to build community capacity and not dependency. Our approach is based on the model of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD). This means we believe that everyone is an asset, with skills, aspirations, and abilities and that by building relationships in communities, these become stronger and better connected.

Our stories

Watch our video about a project we supported in Paignton.

Watch our video about one of our partnerships, Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, working across some of our Supported Living schemes.

Watch our video about supporting families by giving play packs to 50 vulnerable families across Torbay to try and support them through the coronavirus lockdown.

Families having fun at Summerfest 2021

Dozens of families came together to enjoy food, crafts and lots of healthy activities in Banbury for popular play festival Summerfest.

Clover Court staff and residents enjoying the farm and animals

Residents living at a supported housing service in Lowestoft enjoying spending part of their summer learning about the world of farming on a 12 week programme at a local care farm.

Group of residents cycling for 'What's your game?' initiative

One of our community facilitators taking part in cycle leader bike trail training to help support the community access cycling initiatives in the future.

Sanctuary's Community Investment Fund

Sanctuary’s Community Investment Fund provides grants for community initiatives which make a difference to the lives of Sanctuary residents. To find out more visit our dedicated Community Investment Fund page.

We recently published a brand new strategy for Community Investment which explains our aims, priorities and how we work with communities.

Read our Community Investment Strategy 2021 (PDF 838KB) or listen to the 1 minute video below where Marie-Claire, Head of Community Investment explains how it was created: