AUTUMN2019_4WEB

newsletter
Autumn 2019
1
THIS IS THE NEWSLETTER FOR TENANTS OF HARROW CHURCHES HOUSING ASSOCIATION
Summer party at St Barnabas
PHOTO: LUCY BAKER
Tenants and staff at the St Barnabas summer party
St Barnabas Court held a summer garden party for
tenants and some of our staff came along too. It was
well attended with 16 tenants enjoying a get together
in the garden under the shade of two lovely new
parasols, purchased by the tenants social committee.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, there was a buffet
lunch, followed by a surprise presentation of flowers
and chocolates to three of our tenants by Christopher
Holley, our Chief Executive. The trio helped HCHA deal
with really unpleasant and long running anti-social
behaviour.
Christopher Holley said, ‘We have been committed to
supporting the tenants at St Barnabas and I personally
want to thank every one of them for their patience
and support. We know how tough and testing recent
times have been for all tenants and staff who have
been involved. Flowers and chocolates are only a token
of my appreciation and admiration for what these
three wonderful tenants have helped us to achieve.’
Susan Robinson Scheme Manager said, ‘It was a
good event and we were pleased to welcome our
Chief Executive, who warmly thanked tenants for
their input with the recent ant-social behaviour.
It sends a message to our tenants that we want
people to feel safe and that anti-social behaviour
will be dealt with.’
Cont'd page 2
PHOTO: LUCY BAKER
Maintenance
Survey Prize
Draw Winner
Page: 2
Suppporting
Harrow Food
Bank
Page: 3
Engaging with
teenagers is fun
for everyone!
Page: 4
A thank you to the
tenants at
Wolstenholme
Page: 5

HCHA decided to launch a new pet policy and
I was delighted to introduce it along with my
much loved staffie called Bailey. There is lots of
evidence about how beneficial pets are for both
physical and mental good health, exercise levels
and how they genuinely improve our quality of
life. The pet policy has already been a big hit with
HCHA tenants. We thought very carefully about
the impact on neighbours and so you do need to
get our permission before you get a pet but we
will always try to agree to your proposed furry
or feathery friend if we can.
I have really enjoyed going out
and about and meeting up with
some of our tenants this summer,
listening to their views but I
would like to encourage every
one of you to complete the annual
tenant survey when it comes out.
We really do want to hear from you.
Christopher Holley, Chief Executive.
2
Cont'd from page 1
It was also the perfect event to launch our brand new Pet Policy along with some canine friends
owned by HCHA staff. Our Head of Asset Management & Development, James Warne brought along
his gorgeous cockapoodle (a mix between a poodle and a cocker spaniel) and our Chief Executive
arrived with his cuddly staffie much to the delight of everyone. You can download HCHA’s Pet Policy
from our website. Just check out the ‘Housing Services’ section.
PHOTO: LUCY BAKER
PHOTO: LUCY BAKER
PHOTO: LUCY BAKER
James with his dog, Archie meeting tenants
Chris Holley, centre with tenants
A buffet lunch for all
tenants at St Barnabas
Maintenance survey prize draw winner
The quarterly prize draw for tenants who complete the
HCHA maintenance survey was won by Katherine from
Ewart House.
Katherine was very pleased to receive her cheque of
£50 from Luca, Scheme Manager at Ewart House.
Katherine said, ‘I’ve had a bad couple of months, so
it’s the best news in a long time!’
Nila Shah, HCHA Office Services Manager, who
processes tenants’ responses to the maintenance
survey said, ‘We want feedback from all our tenants
each time they have a maintenance job or repair done
by HCHA, this helps us to improve our service. What’s
more, every tenant who completes the survey is
automatically entered into our prize draw for a
chance to win £50.’
Katherine with Luca
PHOTO: SONI SHAH

Marvellous Margate!
3
PHOTO: CHIPO CHAPESSHAMANO
Tenants from 4 sheltered schemes came along for the day out to Margate
This year’s summer outing to the seaside was a great
success, with two coaches setting off from Harrow to
Margate, Kent with 37 tenants, carers and friends,
plus staff.
The day started off warm but cloudy and cleared up in
the afternoon – perfect weather for walking about to
discover the seaside town. Some tenants stayed
together in a large group, whilst others wanted to go
off to explore Margate by themselves.
Chipo Chapesshamano, Scheme Manager, who led a
group said, ‘Some tenants chose to have picnics and
others opted for fish & chips. We walked by the beach
and some paddled in the sea, and we ate a lot of ice
cream! It was a beautiful experience spending some
quality time with the tenants.’
Ekky Archibong, our Activities Coordinator who
organised the trip added, ‘The trip also had the aim to
promote socialising between our schemes, which
worked really well I think.’
Tenant Brian said, ‘It was a great day out, I went with a
friend to the Turner Gallery to see the portraits and
seascapes, and then I bought lots of rock as presents
for friends. Our driver was excellent.’
Iris, another tenant, added, ‘I’d never been to Margate
before, it was easy to walk about and I really enjoyed
the whole experience, especially meeting people from
the RNLI.’
PHOTO: CHIPO CHAPESSHAMANO
Supporting Harrow Food Bank
HCHA subscribes to an organisation called Housing
Systems that runs a monthly quiz that tests your
knowledge and provides an opportunity for us to win
£50 for our local food bank. Our Head of Finance, Tracey
Baldwin won June’s quiz and chose Harrow Food Bank.
Upon receiving the cheque Chonde Nkowani from
Harrow Food Bank said, ‘Thank you for your kind
donation. Apart from giving foodstuffs, people often
forget that you can also make a financial donation to us
which really helps those in food crisis.’
PHOTO: SONI SHAH
Chonde Nkowani, Harrow Food Bank Manager and volunteer Ted at the
distribution warehouse
Some of HCHA’s tenants on low incomes have had to
use the Harrow Food Bank, whilst other tenants have
donated food. If you’d like to make a cash donation
online you can visit their website www.harrow.
foodbank.org.uk or contact them on 020 8416 7344
to find out about how you can donate to their food
appeal.

Engaging with teenagers is fun for everyone!
4
PHOTO: SONI SHAH
Left to right: Tenants Jyotsna, Shrikant, Bhano and Hansa with students Asiya, Krishi, and Naima
Throughout the summer young people aged
between 16 and 17 from the National Citizen
Service (NCS) visited our tenants living in sheltered
schemes at Paxfold and St Barnabas. They shared
their personal stories, interests, and laughter over
a cup of tea.
Asiya, said, ‘I’m normally a very shy person, I don’t
talk much, I’m mainly on my phone texting. Joining
the NCS and coming here has helped me to become
more sociable.’
Krisha said, ‘Their stories are interesting. It’s changed
my opinion of older people. They’re very much like us!’
PHOTO: SONI SHAH
Above: The young people from the NCS who visited
St Baranabas decided to raise money to purchase teatime
snacks for tenants and a gift. They raised enough
money to buy this traditional South Asian board game
called Carrom. Tenants were shown how to play it by
flicking their fingers to hit the disc and get it to slide
across the board. The aim of the game is to get all
your counters into one of the four corner pockets. It’s
a strategic game a bit like snooker but played with
fingers instead of cue sticks. The Carrom board was
gifted to the St Barnabas communal lounge.
Susan Robinson, Scheme Manager said, ‘It was a
really excellent day and we all enjoyed the energy and
enthusiasm of the young visitors. The board game was
a very thoughtful and unusual present!’
PHOTO: SONI SHAH
Left to right: Krishna, Zaki, Sachin, and Georgina, with tenant Bryan
PHOTO: SONI SHAH
Left to right: Zainab and Leah with tenant Mary
Tenant Mary said, ‘Speaking to Leah reminds me of
my granddaughter. She’s a smart girl.’

A thank you to the tenants at Wolstenholme
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Far left, Maureen with Wolstenholme residents. Gardening enthusiast
Brian front centre.
The Wolstenholme scheme manager, Maureen
Wallace, organised a summer garden party for
tenants in August. She explained, ‘I wanted to get
everyone together for a treat and personally thank
them for helping me to settle into this job. Everybody
here makes my working day such a pleasure.’
Despite the heavy rain, the event was well attended
with 23 tenants coming along for the delicious buffet
lunch. Some residents came out onto the porch
when there was a momentary break in the rain.
PHOTO: LUCY BAKER
Wolstenholme’s grounds are covered in blooms
tended to daily by a small group of avid gardeners.
Green fingered resident Brian said, ‘We’re really
lucky because Morrisons in Hatch End were kind
enough to donate some flowering plants that we
potted up here on the railings and in the tubs. They
make the place really come alive!’
PHOTO: LUCY BAKER
Chris Roberts, Head of Operations at HCHA said,
‘I was delighted to be invited to Wolstenholme’s
garden party. The gardens are amazing, I am only
sorry we could not be out and enjoying them more.
Many thanks to all the staff and residents for a very
enjoyable afternoon.’
The Dashwood summer ‘bash’
Dashwood Court held their summer party in
the communal garden. Then there was plenty
of food and people stayed on until late evening.
Tenant, Lorna said, ‘It was a fabulous day, we
combined our garden party with a leaving party
for one of our tenants, Peggy Desilva (pictured
front row second from left). Peggy has helped
many tenants out, she is very kind and goes out
of her way to do what she can for everyone, we
are very sorry to see her leave.’

Cherie & Franky – a perfect match
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PHOTO: LUCY BAKER
Cherie and Franky
Wolstenholme resident Cherie has been a dog lover
all her life. In fact she and her partner Terry have
owned dogs most of their 40 year marriage.
It was with great reluctance that they gave up
their pet poodle so that they could move into
Wolstenholme which had a ‘no pets’ policy at
the time.
Cherie explained, ‘So as soon as the new pet policy
came out this year we contacted Battersea Dogs
Home and asked them to find us a suitable small dog
that needed a home. They matched us with Franky,
they told us he was a Yorkie cross, and was a rescued
stray dog. He is shy and very cute. He’s always with
me and we take him everywhere.’ When asked what
her neighbours think, she says, ‘They love him too!’
Dennis & Michael’s potato patch
Dennis & Michael are tenants living at Ewart House
extra care scheme, both are wheelchair users.
This summer they have made use of the raised beds
in the communal garden to grow potatoes. Michael
explained, ‘We bought the seeds and planted early
and late Rooster potatoes. We water them regularly,
sometimes with the help of the carers.’
Dennis added, ‘Look at the flowers, aren’t they
amazing? We’re looking forward to a crop of potatoes
in September and one in October.’
PHOTO: SONI SHAH
Tenant Satisfaction Survey coming to your door soon!
This October, the tenant satisfaction survey 2019 will be arriving at your door and we would like to
encourage everyone to complete it. We then read them very carefully and your views really do matter!
HCHA ■ Ewart House ■ Ground Floor ■ 9 Richards Close ■ Harrow ■ Middlesex ■ HA1 2BE
tel 020 8424 2776 email info@hcha.org.uk www.hcha.org.uk
Edited by Soni Shah, Communications and Projects Manager, HCHA.
Graphic Design by nim design www.nimdesign.com
Printed by St.Austell Printing Company Ltd on 100% recycled paper.
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