Member Article

Endeavour Housing Association celebrates 40th birthday

Endeavour Housing Association is celebrating 40 years of affordable housing on Teesside and across the North East, by taking a look back at the people and places that have influenced the organisation over the last four decades.

The Association kick-started its 40th anniversary celebrations with an evening reception at the MIMA art gallery in Middlesbrough with guest speaker The Lord Best OBE. Present and former staff and Board members were joined by guests from partner organisations, local authorities, and local community projects, who have all been closely involved with Endeavour’s work over the years.

Endeavour started life with just two staff members, working out of a small office comprising two small rooms at the top of the CCVS building, Princess Road, Middlesbrough. Barclays Bank donated most of the office furniture, including three red leather chairs. A telephone was not even installed for the first four months that the company was in operation – as earlier provision had not been possible due to a shortage of telephone lines.

Angela Lockwood, Group Chief Executive of North Star Housing Group, the parent company of Endeavour, said: “Endeavour Housing Association was founded in 1974 in response to a growing need to provide quality, affordable homes to the local people of Teesside. As an organisation, we’ve come a long way over the last four decades, though many of the challenges faced by our local communities remain.

“At Endeavour, we are committed to building more homes for local people, and passionate about supporting local communities to thrive and grow.”

As part of the celebrations, Endeavour also officially opened Bartram Court - a brand new scheme of bungalows in the Clavering area of Hartlepool - named in memory of the first Chief Executive.

Jed Lester, Chair of the North Star Board, said: “Pioneers like Kit Bartram, Rev. John Williams and Rt. Rev. John Yates, who helped establish Endeavour 40 years ago, would no doubt be very proud of how we have grown – from that first Steering Committee meeting of members of the community including a housewife, a retired chief fire officer, a solicitor and an architect; to the 100-strong staff and 3,500 properties we have today.”

Kit Bartram was brought on board after responding to an ad in the local press seeking people to lead Housing Organisations – “No experience necessary”. Working for Endeavour, he was one of the first of a group who became known as ‘the flowerpot men’.

Jed Lester explained: “This was a ground breaking era for the housing sector and it’s great to be able to trace our roots back to this time. Would-be Chief Executives were trained and developed under a ‘hot house’ process. The ‘flowerpot’ scheme was successful in being a seedbed for talent from sectors outside of housing.”

Stories and pictures from Endeavour’s 40 year journey are now being collected for a special online project. Friends, residents and staff, both past and present can get in touch via www.eha40.co.uk

A short film celebrating 40 years of Endeavour is available to watch on the YouTube channel at: www.YouTube.com/NorthStarHG

Angela Lockwood said: “We would like to thank everyone who has shared in our history and been involved in making Endeavour the successful community-based organisation it is today. We take great pride in the service we provide and look forward to the next 40 years of investing in local communities.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by North Star Housing Group .