The Opportunity
For almost 60 years, Brookfield Residential has been crafting homes and communities for Albertans. Struggling to define a social purpose for their community investment program, Brookfield Residential engaged us to help them better define their role in the community, engage their key stakeholders and make a bigger overall impact. It was very important that through this new initiative, Brookfield Residential was able to better connect with their customers in Brookfield communities.
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Insights
Early on in this process, we learned that Brookfield employees really wanted to be able to rally around an issue that was important to all key stakeholders. They wanted to have a defined purpose that they could communicate both internally and externally. Through discovery research, we identified social inclusion and community engagement as the perfect intersection between Brookfield’s business strengths and assets and the community needs.A very important aspect of this strategy was to target the program to those living in Brookfield communities. This would focus the program and reduce the volume of applications, but also ensure that key stakeholders would be at the forefront.
Outcome
Once Brookfield chose social inclusion as the focus area, we strategically developed a program that involved a few larger strategic initiatives and then a community specific grants program focused on increasing social engagement among Brookfield homeowners. Homeowners can apply for the small grants for any project that improves social inclusion and engagement in their communities. This can range from community book clubs, to informal sports groups, anything that brings Brookfield neighbours together.Through workshops with Brookfield employees, we outlined six shifts that would bring them form the current program, to their desired end goal.
Impact
Focusing their community investment program was an excellent opportunity for Brookfield to be able to tell a more unified story about their community impact. The communities we live in really do shape so many aspects of our lives and through this program, Brookfield is able to craft the kinds of communities that inspire interaction and inclusion between neighbours, a critical need in our society