Communities Sounding Board Update January ... - Festival Housing
Communities Sounding Board Update January ... - Festival Housing
Communities Sounding Board Update January ... - Festival Housing
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<strong>Communities</strong> <strong>Sounding</strong> <strong>Board</strong> <strong>Update</strong><br />
<strong>January</strong> – March 2012<br />
<strong>Update</strong> Originator:<br />
Eleanor Clayton, Herefordshire Community Officer<br />
24 th April 2012<br />
Introduction<br />
Over the last couple of months the <strong>Communities</strong> team has been<br />
working hard pulling evidence together for our QHS <strong>Communities</strong><br />
audit. This is a nationally recognised accreditation within housing<br />
which aims to acknowledge the wide range of community based work<br />
people do within their organisation.<br />
Following our on-site audit last month I am very pleased to report that<br />
we have been successful in our application and even reached<br />
‘enhanced certification’ in some areas of the report!<br />
If anybody is interested in any aspect of the report and would like to<br />
receive further details please let me know.<br />
Gets2gether Summary<br />
Gets2gether<br />
We organised a number of events during this quarter including taster<br />
scuba diving sessions; family trips to the local fire station in Droitwich,<br />
Hereford and Malvern; Canoe in the Pool sessions; a litterpick in<br />
Malvern and a family Pancake and Planting session held at Alfrick<br />
Village Hall. We received 100% customer satisfaction for all the<br />
activities and the trips to the fire station provided a great opportunity<br />
to talk to families about fire safety and promote free fire home safety<br />
checks.<br />
In total approximately 140 young people were involved in our<br />
activities this quarter.<br />
Gets2gether<br />
Membership<br />
We have managed to recruit 103 new Gets2gether members since<br />
our last report, taking the total to 428 members. With our summer<br />
activity programme of events just around the corner we are confident<br />
we will easily reach our 500 members target for 2012.<br />
The chart below shows a fairly even distribution of Gets2gether<br />
members across the three areas – Malvern, Droitwich and<br />
Herefordshire.
No. of Gets2gether<br />
members<br />
(figures taken on 24/04/2011)<br />
Malvern &<br />
Surrounding<br />
areas<br />
Droitwich &<br />
Surrounding<br />
areas<br />
Herefordshire<br />
Future<br />
Activities<br />
Preparation is already well underway for the summer activity<br />
programme – there is a wide range of activities on offer, with a<br />
number of activities aimed at young people aged 12-16 years old. A<br />
copy of the full programme of events will be published in the next<br />
edition of the Flyer.<br />
We have also been very busy planning our annual Community<br />
Games events which will be held in June. This year’s events will be<br />
held between 12-3pm at:<br />
Steynors Avenue, Droitwich on Thursday 7 th June,<br />
Dukes Meadow, Malvern on Friday 8 th June,<br />
Deer Park, Ledbury on Saturday 9 th June 2012<br />
Activities on offer include Olympic inspired family games and<br />
activities, facepainting, small farm animals, inflatable bungee run, the<br />
unveiling of our <strong>Festival</strong> Olympic torch, balloon modelling, zorb balls ,<br />
fairground games, graffiti artwork and inflatable smoke house. We<br />
have also invited a number of other people to join us who will be<br />
running stalls on the days.<br />
The team would be really keen to hear from any <strong>Sounding</strong> <strong>Board</strong><br />
members who would be interested in volunteering at our events or<br />
who would like to get involved in the planning and decision making<br />
process relating to the activities we offer. Please contact either<br />
myself, Paul or Kate if you’d be interested in attending one of our<br />
planning meetings (transport can be provided if required).
New Initiatives<br />
Top Barn<br />
In March we launched a new gardening project based at Top Barn,<br />
Holt Heath. The aim of this project is to strengthen community links<br />
and encourage residents to develop an interest in gardening and<br />
growing their own fruit and vegetables. This is a pilot initiative which<br />
will involve 20 interested residents who have responded to our<br />
posters and able to commit one day a week to the project until<br />
November. Residents have been allocated their own allotment plot<br />
and have been encouraged to develop it as they so choose. Top<br />
Barn staff are on hand to give residents guidance on various different<br />
aspects of allotment gardening throughout the seasons. At the end<br />
of November tenants will then be encouraged to get involved in other<br />
gardening opportunities and projects identified in their local area.<br />
Estate Management Performance<br />
Estate Visits<br />
Community Officers completed 100% of estate visits during this<br />
quarter. Estate visits are used to resolve various estate management<br />
issues such as flytipping, untaxed vehicles parked on our estates,<br />
individual property condition and grounds maintenance issues.<br />
6 week visits Community Officers continue to conduct 6 week visits for all new<br />
tenants. These visits give Community Officers the opportunity to<br />
inform tenants about local services available to them and can be<br />
used to encourage families to join our Gets2gether club.<br />
Community<br />
Walkabouts<br />
Any Questions<br />
Estate walkabouts were carried out in the following areas during<br />
<strong>January</strong> - March:<br />
Hill View Road area, Malvern<br />
Archer Close area, Malvern<br />
Atyeo Close area, Malvern<br />
Duke of Edinburgh Way, Malvern<br />
Chawson Estate, Droitwich<br />
Westlands, Droitwich<br />
Dates for estate walkabouts in your local area are published in The<br />
Flyer. Walkabouts are usually attended by your <strong>Housing</strong> Officer,<br />
Community Officer and a representative from your local Policing<br />
team. Local residents are welcome to attend to provide feedback on<br />
any estate management issues.<br />
If you have a question which you would like us to try to answer and<br />
include in the next quarterly update please let us know.
Other news<br />
<strong>Sounding</strong> <strong>Board</strong> Membership<br />
At present we have 12 Community <strong>Sounding</strong> <strong>Board</strong> members. The <strong>Communities</strong> team<br />
are really keen to recruit new members who are willing to tell us what they think and<br />
give us their views. If you know of any other residents who would be interested in<br />
joining our <strong>Sounding</strong> <strong>Board</strong> please let me know.<br />
Contact details<br />
Eleanor Clayton, Herefordshire Community Officer<br />
Tel: 01684 579411 / 07918 160967<br />
E-mail: eclayton@festivalhousing.org