Leading housing association, Catalyst, has been awarded ‘Best Housing Provider’ at the inaugural Rainbow Honours Awards, which celebrates individuals and organisations supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
Recognised for an exemplary commitment to support both customers and employees who identify as LGBTQ+, the judges praised Catalyst for its bespoke approach to championing these individuals, under a guiding ethos of “home ownership for everyone”. As a leading light on LGBTQ+ issues within the property industry, Catalyst employees sit within the National Housing Federation’s Diversity and Inclusivity Group, working with key stakeholders to ensure that both its employees and customers feel welcome and accepted.
Markus Kendall-Young, Head of Sales and Marketing at Catalyst, comments: “Research by the Albert Kennedy Trust shows that 24% of homeless people between 16 – 24 identify as LGBTQ, meaning, as a housing provider, it’s more crucial than ever to promote diversity and inclusively. We are very pleased to have been recognised with such a prestigious award at the Rainbow Honour Awards, which will serve to bolster and strengthen work across a multitude of industries, for the LGBTQ+ community.”
Hosted at Madame Tussauds by Courtney Act, star of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and Duncan James, of British boyband Blue, the awards celebration saw Catalyst awarded alongside LGBTQ+ campaigners including Sue Perkins, Sadiq Khan and Peter Tatchell.
Reaching LGBTQ+ individuals via non-traditional channels is an essential part of Catalyst’s award-winning work. A lead supporter of London Pride 2019, Catalyst sponsored the main stage in Trafalgar Square, as well as distributing recyclable leaflets along the parade, that promoted their ‘Homes for Everyone’ mantra. Challenging the inherent heteronormativity of traditional marketing campaigns, Catalyst has introduced lifestyle imagery showing same-sex couples and trans/non-binary models, along with show home designs that reflect alternative family structures to the “nuclear family”.
Catalyst’s work for the LGBTQ+ community forms a strand of a wider diversity and inclusion strategy, bringing the possibility of home ownership to minority groups across London and the South East.
With modern developments across London and beyond, buying your dream new home has never been easier. Current developments include Portobello Square in Notting Hill, ARRO in Southall, Kite Meadows in Princes Risborough and Spires Place in Oxford.
Visit: www.catalyst.homes