History

Friendship Care and Housing was founded in 1956 as the Friendship Housing Association, to house and support newly arrived immigrants who faced two main problems: finding somewhere to live; and adjusting to a society very different to that they had left.  Friendship diversified very early on to provide caring services for vulnerable people, such as a hostel for refugees from the Suez Crisis and a mother and baby home.  Friendship’s operations were centred on inner city Birmingham, growing through the purchase and renovation of existing properties until its first new build general needs housing was completed in 1973.

After considerable growth over the years, Friendship merged in 1999 with the Derby and Loughborough-based Charnwood Forest Housing Association to form a new organisation, managing around 3,600 homes and supporting around 800 people.  In 2006, Friendship joined Longhurst Group to help us strengthen our resources and pursue our aims and values.

We support people with a wide range of needs, including those with learning difficulties, mental ill-health, and vulnerability due to age – both old and young.  Our services to people encompass registered care homes, sheltered housing and personal support, advocacy and day centres.  We also offer culturally-dedicated services such as specialist mental health services for Asian and African-Caribbean communities; and residential care for African Caribbean elders.  Friendship has always sought innovative ways to help people to lead fuller lives.  We are the only housing association to lead a community-based SureStart scheme.  We are developing new services and partnerships and we continue to build affordable homes for local people.

While modern Britain is very different to the Britain of the 1950’s, Friendship remains committed to a full engagement with our service users, recognising and addressing social needs as well as physical and economic ones.  We pursue service users’ choice and involvement to underpin our drive for continuous improvement.