Communities Sounding Board Update January ... - Festival Housing

Communities Sounding Board Update
January – March 2012
Update Originator:
Eleanor Clayton, Herefordshire Community Officer
24 th April 2012
Introduction
Over the last couple of months the Communities team has been
working hard pulling evidence together for our QHS Communities
audit. This is a nationally recognised accreditation within housing
which aims to acknowledge the wide range of community based work
people do within their organisation.
Following our on-site audit last month I am very pleased to report that
we have been successful in our application and even reached
‘enhanced certification’ in some areas of the report!
If anybody is interested in any aspect of the report and would like to
receive further details please let me know.
Gets2gether Summary
Gets2gether
We organised a number of events during this quarter including taster
scuba diving sessions; family trips to the local fire station in Droitwich,
Hereford and Malvern; Canoe in the Pool sessions; a litterpick in
Malvern and a family Pancake and Planting session held at Alfrick
Village Hall. We received 100% customer satisfaction for all the
activities and the trips to the fire station provided a great opportunity
to talk to families about fire safety and promote free fire home safety
checks.
In total approximately 140 young people were involved in our
activities this quarter.
Gets2gether
Membership
We have managed to recruit 103 new Gets2gether members since
our last report, taking the total to 428 members. With our summer
activity programme of events just around the corner we are confident
we will easily reach our 500 members target for 2012.
The chart below shows a fairly even distribution of Gets2gether
members across the three areas – Malvern, Droitwich and
Herefordshire.

No. of Gets2gether
members
(figures taken on 24/04/2011)
Malvern &
Surrounding
areas
Droitwich &
Surrounding
areas
Herefordshire
Future
Activities
Preparation is already well underway for the summer activity
programme – there is a wide range of activities on offer, with a
number of activities aimed at young people aged 12-16 years old. A
copy of the full programme of events will be published in the next
edition of the Flyer.
We have also been very busy planning our annual Community
Games events which will be held in June. This year’s events will be
held between 12-3pm at:
Steynors Avenue, Droitwich on Thursday 7 th June,
Dukes Meadow, Malvern on Friday 8 th June,
Deer Park, Ledbury on Saturday 9 th June 2012
Activities on offer include Olympic inspired family games and
activities, facepainting, small farm animals, inflatable bungee run, the
unveiling of our Festival Olympic torch, balloon modelling, zorb balls ,
fairground games, graffiti artwork and inflatable smoke house. We
have also invited a number of other people to join us who will be
running stalls on the days.
The team would be really keen to hear from any Sounding Board
members who would be interested in volunteering at our events or
who would like to get involved in the planning and decision making
process relating to the activities we offer. Please contact either
myself, Paul or Kate if you’d be interested in attending one of our
planning meetings (transport can be provided if required).

New Initiatives
Top Barn
In March we launched a new gardening project based at Top Barn,
Holt Heath. The aim of this project is to strengthen community links
and encourage residents to develop an interest in gardening and
growing their own fruit and vegetables. This is a pilot initiative which
will involve 20 interested residents who have responded to our
posters and able to commit one day a week to the project until
November. Residents have been allocated their own allotment plot
and have been encouraged to develop it as they so choose. Top
Barn staff are on hand to give residents guidance on various different
aspects of allotment gardening throughout the seasons. At the end
of November tenants will then be encouraged to get involved in other
gardening opportunities and projects identified in their local area.
Estate Management Performance
Estate Visits
Community Officers completed 100% of estate visits during this
quarter. Estate visits are used to resolve various estate management
issues such as flytipping, untaxed vehicles parked on our estates,
individual property condition and grounds maintenance issues.
6 week visits Community Officers continue to conduct 6 week visits for all new
tenants. These visits give Community Officers the opportunity to
inform tenants about local services available to them and can be
used to encourage families to join our Gets2gether club.
Community
Walkabouts
Any Questions
Estate walkabouts were carried out in the following areas during
January - March:
Hill View Road area, Malvern
Archer Close area, Malvern
Atyeo Close area, Malvern
Duke of Edinburgh Way, Malvern
Chawson Estate, Droitwich
Westlands, Droitwich
Dates for estate walkabouts in your local area are published in The
Flyer. Walkabouts are usually attended by your Housing Officer,
Community Officer and a representative from your local Policing
team. Local residents are welcome to attend to provide feedback on
any estate management issues.
If you have a question which you would like us to try to answer and
include in the next quarterly update please let us know.

Other news
Sounding Board Membership
At present we have 12 Community Sounding Board members. The Communities team
are really keen to recruit new members who are willing to tell us what they think and
give us their views. If you know of any other residents who would be interested in
joining our Sounding Board please let me know.
Contact details
Eleanor Clayton, Herefordshire Community Officer
Tel: 01684 579411 / 07918 160967
E-mail: eclayton@festivalhousing.org