Many customers of the housing association in the city live in flats with limited access to gardens and so the team wanted to cheer up some children and encourage them to be creative.

“We understand that life is difficult at the moment,” said policy business partner, Lynsey Beckett. “Parents are struggling to juggle work and childcare as well as home schooling their children and the kids are missing their friends and family. We wanted to spread some cheer and encourage kids to get outside into local parks, read and draw.”

The team targeted two areas in Dundee in the west side of the city. In total, 63 properties were visited with goodie bags for all children on record. The Home Group branded bags included age appropriate books, garden chalk, bubbles, notebooks and skipping ropes and some sweet treats. The bags were all delivered while keeping social distancing in mind.

Home Group Scotland had previously been working with groups on its ‘Aspirations’ project, which aims to support the aspirations of customers and communities. Many of these projects have been put on hold due to COVID-19 so there was budget available for a different kind of project.

“This was very much a pilot scheme to see how customers would react,” added Lynsey. “We’ve had some brilliant feedback so far. Customers were really touched at the gifts and thought behind them. Hopefully we’ll be able to do something similar for more customers throughout Scotland.”