MONDAY

PHEW! I got there in time. This constant rushing to catch the underground. Either I’ve snoozed a bit to long or there’s a stoppage caused by a breakdown. An ongoing source of irritation for a Stockholmer such as myself.

Today, my relationship management colleagues from Gothenburg and Malmö are coming up to Stockholm. We’ll be spending two days together discussing common questions and exchanging experiences with each other. Today’s agenda consists of a study visit to our residential area Vårberg. We own only 171 apartments there, but the security problems in the area are also affecting our other residential areas in the vicinity. After a small train delay and lost luggage at Arlanda, we all meet up and make our way to Vårberg.

Our first meeting is with the youth club Mötesplats Vårberg (MVG). The youth club was started up by two enthusiasts in the area who gather young people who need guidance and good role models. By contributing financially to their activities and providing premises in the area, we have enabled them to develop the youth club and give it a stable base. Youth clubs such as MVG show the fantastic commitment existing in the area and Vårberg will always have a special place in my heart.

We move on to meet one of the area’s community hosts. This is a new position established by the local authorities. The role of community host is to listen to the inhabitants’ wishes and questions and pass them on to the district council. A lot of what the community hosts do is similar to how we relationship managers work. We create relations with the local community and develop projects and establish collaboration based on existing needs. Even though it was a short meeting this time, it seems as if there will be many areas where we can collaborate in the future.

TUESDAY

I WOKE TO A WHITE STOCKHOLM with the snow still falling. On days like this, it’s extra difficult not to snooze but I’m feeling really proud of getting up out of my warm bed and the purring cat on my pillow by pure willpower. Today, my colleagues and I will continue where we left off yesterday. We will continue to discuss the goals of relationship management for 2017 and find ways of working for common questions. Among other things, it’s important to get the whole organization behind us when it comes to taking our social responsibility.

It’s not only the relationship managers who should be working with these questions, it should be a natural part of how we manage our existing properties and of our community-building plans.

Another important item on today’s agenda concerns work placement and traineeships internally in the company but also at our contractors and suppliers. We are working hard to create jobs for the young people in our areas. In addition to offering 300 summer jobs every year, we are also providing young people with jobs giving them practical experience and traineeships in different forms.

Here, too, it’s important that we work as a team and draw up common documents and templates in order to create the optimum conditions that will enable us to increase the number of positions we can offer. After sitting all day in a conference room, I end the day with a strenuous weight-training session at the gym.

WEDNESDAY

AN IMPORTANT PART OF MY WORK is collaborating with other property owners. It’s very rare that we are the sole property owner in an area, which means that is essential that we can work together. Today, I’m meeting Huge Fastigheter, which has a position similar to mine. It’s both fun and rewarding to be able to exchange experiences involving our work and to, together, be able to contribute to the positive development of our areas. Time to trudge through the snow and make my way to our residential area Fisksätra for an evaluation meeting about the football tournament Fisksätra Games. The target group for the tournament was the children in the area. The teams consisted of the streets in the area and the children represented their own streets. It proved to be a festive occasion for everybody and, hopefully, Fisksätra Games will be an annual tradition.

FRIDAY

Friday already? Where did the week go? The meeting this morning is the last one this week. Stena Fastigheter in Stockholm has been collaborating with the City Mission for many years. We have now taken this collaboration a step further and have signed an agreement involving their project Särskildnyttan. The project involves a housing model that makes it possible for homeless persons to have somewhere to live.

Our ambition at Stena Fastigheter is to make available a number of apartments in order to help reduce homelessness in Stockholm. This collaboration will now be implemented in our business activities, which is why City Mission is coming here today to inform our managing director and property managers about the project. The week could be summarized as one of many meetings, great young people, good cooperation and a thick blanket of snow.

Thank you for accompanying me during my day-to-day work at Stena Fastigheter.

I wish you a really fantastic winter!