This month, we spoke to Tom Brooke. As LandAid’s Acting Communications Manager during a Maternity Leave, Tom leads on the content strategy for LandAid to engage the sector and make sure we cultivate as much support as possible.
What brought you to LandAid in the first place?
I used to work within the property sector as a town planner. I’ve always been interested in how the built environment shapes the way in which we live through either effective design to promote interaction and safety, or perhaps even the opposite. After changing my career to working in communications, when I saw this role at LandAid, it was the perfect mix!
Working at LandAid is an opportunity to apply my marketing knowledge in a setting that works with businesses in the property sector to make positive social impact. I understand that issues of homelessness are complex and can’t be solved single handedly by LandAid alone, however, it’s a niche subsection of the industry that has such huge potential to do great things. Just some of these might be, providing BTR units, offering free property services to housing projects, or even simply donating! It’s great to harness the full potential of the property sector.
What’s your role and how to you help end youth homelessness?
As a Comms Manager, I lead the content strategy for LandAid to engage the sector and increase our brand awareness. This includes, managing our campaigns, developing new creative across all our channels, and growing our audience. By demonstrating our impact, engaging the industry, and building relationships with our audience, I’m compelling the industry to act. This in turn secures support to ensure we reach our strategy aim to support 10,000 by 2029.
What’s one project or moment that made you proud to work at LandAid?
Meeting the young people at Fat Macys, a a social enterprise that supports people to move on from temporary accommodation through culinary training, plus, access to a rental deposit. Seeing how LandAid’s support is helping them create something sustainable for their own future. I really enjoy sharing these stories as it’s the bread and butter of what we do. Unfortunately, due to anonymisation it’s tricky to apply these perspectives in our campaigns to rally the sector further.
What’s one challenge LandAid faces in this work that you think more people should know about?
As a grants charity it’s often difficult to present the full impact of our work in a way that captures people’s interest. Because we work across so many projects it’s difficult to stich a narrative that’s easy for the industry to follow. We have a fantastic grants programme that expertly matches funding to some amazing and varied projects that otherwise wouldn’t be able to operate (see Fat Macy’s above!). Another example is the work we do with akt, the UK’s only LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity. I think because these are ran by other charities, our role often goes overlooked. If it was easier to deliver this message, I think the property sector would discover some amazing initiatives that they could meaningfully get involved with. Whether that be telling colleagues, taking part in our events, or volunteering their services.
What’s one thing you wish more people in the property sector understood about our mission?
We offer something in return for your business.