For more than a year we've been working together with Dot Dot Dot Property, a social enterprise who house 'property guardians' in buildings that would otherwise be empty.

These property guardians are able to provide reliable, flexible, low-cost security for landlords while also volunteering with local charities. By doing so, they are able to reduce the antisocial behaviour and crime that empty homes would usually attract and make positive contributions to their local community at the same time. They keep an eye out for things like stealing, littering, and other antisocial behaviour issues, reporting these directly to the police.

To celebrate the success of our continued partnership with Dot Dot Dot, we wanted to share some great information related to what their volunteers have achieved between April and June 2016.

During this time, 52 property guardians spent 1,723 hours volunteering while living in 44 of our properties that would otherwise be empty. To put that into perspective, that's the same as 1 year's-worth of full-time work, with a social impact worth over £24,000.

Social Impact Infographic

Property guardians from Burrows House have been volunteering at 'The Sun House' where local charity Mind provide support for people with mental health issues. When asked about her experience, one of the volunteers said:

"It's great to see the progress of the garden coming along nicely. It's always a pleasure going to Sun House, we've really got to know the staff and the young people."

Steve, one of our volunteers at Westwood, told us:

"I've been volunteering at Wycombe drop-in centre for homeless people. I enjoy the feeling of being part of a group of people who are helping others in a bad place and giving them the chance to turn their life around."

Our property guardians are volunteering locally with more than 40 different charities, in the following sectors:

A chart indicating the relative proportions of volunteers active in different sectors: the largest group being Community, followed by Environmental, Art & Eduction, Health, Animals, and Crime.

And on top of all that, our property guardians have saved us over £20,000 between April and June – money that we can then reinvest back into our communities. A winner all around!