Creation ADM, a Manchester based digital marketing agency, is delighted to have been recognised by the Lord Mayor for its work with Homeless House, an organisation supporting homeless people in the UK.

To mark Volunteers Week, which runs from 1st – 7th June, Creation ADM was awarded with a certificate of recognition from Lord Mayor Abid Latif Chohan, for its work in building the Homeless House website.

Manchester City Council set up a matching scheme to enable regional companies to help charities stretched by the Coronavirus crisis and this brought the two organisations together.

Antonia Gough, the founder of Homeless House, was thankful for the support she received:- “The kindness shown by Creation ADM during these unprecedented times has been amazing. Not only did the owners welcome us into the company but the wider team made us feel as though nothing was too much trouble. They took the vision we wished to portray and brought it to life! We know that thanks to their generosity we have a platform to involve the wider communities with ease, across the UK, in helping the most vulnerable.”

Guy Parker, Creation ADM’s Digital Director, added, “It’s been great fun to develop the site with Antonia and for our team to make a positive contribution at such a critical time. To be recognised for our work is the icing on the cake. We’re looking forward to supporting Homeless House going forward from here.”

Guy continued “We were connected with Homeless House by the Manchester City Council Volunteering scheme. Homeless House is a fantastic organisation which supports the most vulnerable members of society, in many different ways. As well as offering food and clothing, they provide workshops and training to help homeless people gain the skills they need to find employment and support themselves.

We really enjoyed working on the brief, bringing in the graphic design and content marketing sides of our business, translating the urban, street culture feel of their Instagram page, designed to appeal to a younger audience, into a format that was both attractive and informative in website and mobile form. They already had a strong brand identity and enjoyed the backing of some of the North West’s best known companies. The site we built reflects this branding and can now be used to spread awareness, collect donations, facilitate fundraising events, bring in new volunteers and ambassadors and sell clothing via their online shop.”

Moda Angel Gardens opened its doors in 2019 as Manchester’s newest community, offering residents a lifestyle as well as a home, with an envious list of amenities, on site events and services. Included in life at Angel Gardens is the MyModa app, a digital platform creating a well-connected 24/7 community. Since lockdown was enforced at the beginning of April, Moda have used their app, created by Spike Global, to ensure life at Angel Gardens wasn’t put on pause using it as a tool to communicate and host a series of events, launch new services and keep residents connected.

With a desire to stay connected to the city, Moda Angel Gardens have worked with a number of local partners to host a series of virtual events exclusively for residents with a 550% increase in bookings during lockdown compared to those before it was enforced. To date nearly 200 event bookings are being made per month. Residents have taken part in pasta making workshops with The Pasta Factory (with supplies dropped to their front doors), made their own pizza with Noi Quattro, enjoyed beer tasting with Northern Monk, whiskey tasting with Great Drams and wine tasting with Evuna, made at home takeaways with Food Sorcery, had cocktails delivered to their door by Grindsmith and have enjoyed wellbeing sessions and kept moving with workout classes from hero wellbeing.

In addition, Angel Gardens have worked with partners across the city to communicate external events and activities taking place to their residents via the app. From art classes with Old Bank to a book club with the Manchester Young Professional network, residents have been virtually integrating into city life throughout lockdown.

Alongside the extensive events schedule, Moda Angel Gardens have used the lockdown period to extend the range of services available on the app. Throughout the lockdown period residents have been able to book bread deliveries from Pot Kettle Black, order beer to their doorstep from Shindigger Brewing Co., take advantage of fresh fruit and veg deliveries from Manchester based The Market Co, avoid the pasta shortage with DIY pasta kit deliveries from The Pasta Factory, book food deliveries from Food Sorcery and enjoy sweets treats with Siop Shop doughnut deliveries.

Conscious of the vital importance of staying connected to one another at a physical distance, Moda also introduced a neighbourhood forum on the MyModa app to support all residents and especially those self-isolating. The MyModa app allows residents to create the own community groups setting up anything from general chat, to gaming networks so that residents can compete against each other, a channel for sharing Netflix recommendations, Tik-Tok videos, health and wellbeing tips, book clubs and more.

Commented Franceca Shaw, Community Manager at Moda Angel Gardens, ‘During lockdown the MyModa app has allowed the community at Angel Gardens to keep active and stay connected. We’ve seen residents make new friends and socialise with others in the building even more so than before. Our foodie themed events have seen a significant uptake whilst residents have commented on how helpful they’ve found the wellbeing sessions. In addition to the events the app allows us to ensure the 24hour concierge service is maintained during lockdown. Maintenance requests, resident queries, deliveries and more have been handled smoothly and efficiently whilst social distancing thanks to the MyModa App.

In addition to events and services, The MyModa App acts as a tool for residents to manage their life at Angel Gardens. Via the app residents can pay rent, speak directly to concierge, log maintenance requests and book apartment cleans meaning life at Angel Gardens has not been halted by a lack of face to face contact.

Moda Angel Gardens opened the first phase of the building in 2019 with the final phase due to open in June 2020. Access to the MyModa app is available to all Moda residents and in the coming months will include the added features of acting as residents key to their apartment, a tool by which they can book an increased number of services across the city and a platform that will them access to exclusives offers and deals from an extensive list of local partners.