• Home
  • Projects
  • Enviro Care Partnership Supports Local Employment

Enviro Care Partnership Supports Local Employment

Northern Ireland Housing Executive
Our services
Northern Ireland Housing Executive | 2017 - 2021 | Belfast

Providing grounds maintenance services; Supporting local employment

Working in partnership with social economy gardening business, Enviro Care, to provide grounds maintenance services and support communities with jobs and training.

More projects for Northern Ireland Housing Executive

Enviro Care is a social economy gardening business supported by Colin Neighbourhood Partnership. idverde has been working in partnership with Enviro Care since 2017 to provide grounds maintenance services to properties in the West Belfast area owned by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

idverde was introduced to Enviro Care via the Grounds Maintenance Area Manager at the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE). Enviro Care provide much-needed jobs in West Belfast, where unemployment is generally high. Supported by Colin Neighbourhood Partnership (CNP), an award-winning Neighbourhood Renewal organisation consisting of local people, organisations, elected and community representatives, and government bodies, Enviro Care recruits local people to deliver outdoor maintenance and gardening services in the area. The body provides full training, helping people who had often previously struggled to find work into a fulfilling job with a regular source of income.

While there was no contractual obligation to use Enviro Care, idverde is always keen to support local social enterprises and increase social value, so saw immediate benefits to a partnership when it was awarded the grounds maintenance services contract with the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

The partnership has made sourcing a suitable workforce straightforward; by working with CNP we have been able to access suitable candidates who are reliable and knowledgeable about the area in which they work. As members of the local community, they also take great pride in their work, delivering an excellent level of service. In many cases, travel time is minimal, helping to keep contract costs low.

idverde has also been able to give back to the community through its support of Enviro Care by providing PPE and additional training, along with safe working practices and risk assessments. The partnership has grown considerably since 2017, and, as the skills of the workforce have improved and Enviro Care’s reputation as a local employer has continued to grow, they have been able to take on more employees and increase their workload.

We are extremely proud to work in partnership with Enviro Care in Northern Ireland and to help support the local community with employment opportunities and skills development. Both our Northern Ireland Housing Executive client and customers of Enviro Care have commented on the excellent quality of work delivered and the improvements in skills and training since the partnership began, with NIHE’s Grounds Maintenance Area Manager saying the Enviro Care teams “are a great asset to the contractual agreement. A great initiative supported by idverde.”