summer 2009 - Worthing Homes

Did you win in our credit
crunch prize draw? See the
article on page 5.
Worthing Homes is 10 and
to celebrate we are
launching 10 initiatives . See
pages 6 and 7.
The Resident Involvement
Strategy and Menu of
Opportunities has been
updated see page 8.
Meadow Crescent project.
Read all about the clean up
on page 10.
summer 2009
Worthing Homes Scoops Big Lottery fund
award of nearly half a million!
A jubilant Community House celebrates Big Lottery Fund win
ick’s Garage Community House is a
unique, informal drop in facility, right in
the heart of the East Worthing
neighbourhood. Launched in 2007 by Worthing
Homes, in partnership with children’s charity
Spurgeons, this popular and successful
community project is going from strength to
strength. Its immediate future is now secured
with a grant for £420,000 from the Big Lottery
Reaching Communities Fund.
With support from Spurgeons who employ
community worker Leigh-Anna Barber-Corbett,
Mick’s Garage Community House now offers
training, after school activities and volunteering
opportunities. It also has valuable IT facilities
where children can do their homework and
practical resources such as a washing machine.
M
“It’s fantastic
news”, says
Leigh-Anna “I
have seen with
my own eyes the
difference that
the project has
made to the
people in this
neighbourhood
and they, through volunteering and fundraising,
are very much a part of it”.
When local residents, Mick and Chriss Smith
started a small, youth mentoring activity with a
few retired volunteers to engage with bored,
young people, little did they imagine how this
would evolve into an important service for the
whole community. “It was with the support of
Worthing Homes and Spurgeons that we were
really able to develop and grow what we’d
begun, it just shows what can be done.” says
Chriss.
0
This all comes hard on the heels of
S 1 hing ts
I
Mick and Chriss’ News of the World
ES unc ven
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Children’s Champions Award.
O re la ial e
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(See pages 2 and 3 for a
G e a spec
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I
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d7
personal account of this
H
n
e
T at an
once in a lifetime trip).
6a
OR br s
see over ...
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W cele ative
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Home News summer 2009 page 1
Continued from page one
The future of Mick’s Garage Community House will build on existing activities such as the Greenfingers
Gardening Club, Crafty Kids and IT facilities, but will also expand opportunities for volunteering, links
with local businesses and one-to-one mentoring. We will also launch a users forum, host open days
and have employed a project manager to co-ordinate the expanding activities.
There were 12 award winners in different categories; each one of them had a very special story to tell
and it was a humbling experience to hear them all. Many had overcome their own personal tragedy to
help others. For two days these very hardworking and caring individuals were the “celebrities”, not
Theo Walcott, Ross Kemp (Chriss’s favourite), Roxanne Pallet (Mick’s favourite) Alistair Burnett and all
the other well-known faces from sport, stage and screen who were present. Even HRH Prince Andrew
who stood in for Gordon Brown at the awards dinner acknowledged this.
In a very emotional speech, Mick and Chriss accepted the award on behalf of the children in East
Worthing, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house (picture 2).
“we are delighted with the grant offer from the Big Lottery. The house
offers a unique, safe and informal base, fostering positive attitudes and a
culture of respect. Increased access to training and development will give
people better chances in life and improve their life skills. This in turn,
will help Worthing to be a stronger and sustainable community
where people want to live and work.”
After a very late night and a hearty breakfast, we were treated to a champagne reception on the
London Eye before heading home, delicately handling a very precious certificate all the way! That
and the award now take place of honour at the community house and we all have some wonderful
memories of a special occasion.
Nicky Fiondella, Housing Manager
Worthing Homes
3
2
Sue Muller has been a volunteer at the community house for the past year. Sue says:
“I help out wherever needed but particularly with the sewing club and the kids cookery club. I retired
recently and worked from home which meant I didn’t go out much. The Community House has got
me out and about meeting new people and making friends.
I grew up on the estate and still live locally. I have got to know all the kids, they are all great and the
community house has made a real difference for children and adults alike”.
Champion time
Afternoon tea at Number 10,
that’s not something you do every day!
An emotional acceptance speech
by Sue Brown, Resident Involvement Co-ordinator
4
Jill Roberts, Temporary Development Project Manager
and I had the privilege of accompanying Mick and
Chriss Smith on a trip to London in March when they
collected their News of the World Children’s Champion
Award. At an afternoon tea reception at Number 10
Downing Street (pictures 3 and 4), they received a huge
framed certificate from Justice Minister Jack Straw (1)
and met Lord Seb Coe who later presented them with
their prize at a glittering awards dinner at the
Grosvenor House Hotel (picture 5).
5
1
Mick swapped his usual jeans and lumberjack shirt for a
very smart suit and his grandson Tyler followed his
example! Their lady companions made the most of
the occasion and dressed to impress!
The visit to Downing Street was an eye opener and we
all enjoyed seeing what the inside really looks like.
Mick and Chriss are presented with a framed
certificate by Jack Straw and Roxanne Pallet
page 2 Home News summer 2009
Mick and Chriss with family and friends
outside Number 10 Downing Street
Mick and Chriss are presented with the
award by Lord Seb Coe
Home News summer 2009 page 3
Development matters
Completion of Fenchurch
Mansions
Fenchurch Mansions is a new block of flats in Cross
Street. It was completed in early summer 2009.
Along with the flats at Victoria Mansions, it is
contributing to the partial regeneration of an area
near the main train station in central Worthing.
Fenchurch Mansions in Cross Street
View from Worthing station before
building works started
Transformed with the new buildings
of Victoria and Fenchurch Mansions
After a slightly late start, the gardens have been benefitting from the warm and wet spring. To maintain
the communal gardens, Greenspace cuts the grass twice a month and generally weeds the borders
once a month (pictures 1 and 2).
2
Credit Crunch prize
draw – win £250
Y
3
We are always improving the way we communicate with our customers. We welcome
your views about the language we use in Home News or in any other written material.
Do you know what it means, is it easy to read? Please contact Sue Brown on 01903 703
177 or [email protected] with any comments.
page 4 Home News summer 2009
As you will know we send out a customer
feedback form after every repair. Your
feedback is very important. It helps us to
monitor our service and make any necessary
improvements.
Above: Homespace van
Right:
Simon Humphrey
99.8% of our residents are happy with the
quality of repairs they have had carried out Below Right: Mel Decena
and Keith Walker
in their home. This is based upon 1,105
returned forms between 1 April 2008 – 31 December 2008.
We did notice an increase in the number of residents who had reported
that the workman/woman did not identify themselves, or show any
identification before entering their home. As a result of this, we have
sent a reminder to all our contractors.
For your safety please make sure that you ask to see identification,
before letting any contractor into your home. If you are not satisfied
with any of our contractor’s identity, please call our maintenance team
immediately on 01903 703 101.
Remember! please return your customer feedback forms to help us
make the service better for you!
ou may remember a ‘flyer’ sent out with
the January rent
statements
encouraging our customers
to commit to paying their
rent on time and sticking to
this until the end of March.
In return we offered free
entry into a prize draw with
a first prize of £250 and five
prizes of £50.
Hedge cutting starts in July after the birds have finished nesting and will continue through until
September. Where hedges block pathways, we often cut them again during the early part of winter
(picture 3).
1
Did our contractor
identify themselves?
Of course, many of our
customers always pay their
rent on time anyway so this
draw offered a reward to them. It did provide an
incentive to pay on time for those who are not
always able to. It has proved to be very successful
with a high proportion of our customers ensuring
they were eligible to be entered into the draw for
one of the cash prizes.
This is an excellent result; the rent arrears figure
for 2008/09 is 3.6% which places us amongst the
high achievers in the sector.
A number of those entered into the draw paid by
direct debit, a simple, worry free
way to ensure your rent is always
paid on time. Direct debits are now
available weekly as well as monthly.
Maybe now is the time for you to
switch? Please contact your
Neighbourhood Housing Officer
for further information or call into
Davison House.
The top prize of £250 went to
Miss Chester of The Avenue and
the £50 prizes were won by
five other Worthing Homes
residents.
Ensuring we have efficient systems for collecting
the rent and maintaining our income to the
highest possible level allows us to continue to
Home News summer 2009 page 5
Page 6 Home News summer 2009
Home News summer 2009 page 7
Resident Involvement Strategy 2009-2012
Our Resident Involvement Strategy has been reviewed and updated.
Inside the strategy booklet you can find out about resident
involvement whilst the menu of opportunities tells you about ways
to get involved.
If you would like a copy of our new strategy booklet and menu of
opportunities please ring 01903 703 177 or you can e-mail Sue or
Ruth in the resident involvement team: [email protected] or [email protected].
Both the strategy booklet and menu of opportunities can be
found on our website www.worthing-homes.org.uk/get involved.
If you are interested in finding out more, Sue and Ruth are
happy to come and talk to you in your home.
Anti-social
behaviour
The following information tells you about
some of the preventative and enforcement
action that has been taken since January 2009.
66 cases have been dealt with of which 35 were new
cases. These fell into the following categories:
G
2 intimidation
G
14 multiple causes
G
30 noise
G
5 damage to property
G
7 harassment
G
1 criminal behaviour
G
1 alcohol/solvent abuse
G
4 untidy gardens
G
1 nuisance from vehicles
G
1 pets and animals
16 cases were closed during the last quarter because
the case was resolved or became inactive.
4 cases were served with a Notice of Seeking
Possession.
2 cases were referred to another support service.
1 case is awaiting legal proceedings.
hat was the conclusion of the National Housing Federation’s Feedback service in their report
following our customer survey carried out after Christmas.
T
They said: “Overall satisfaction levels have remained at this high level since 2005 which is a significant
achievement and a testament to the high standards of service and commitment provided by staff”.
This keeps us amongst the top performing social landlords. Compared with tenants of other social
landlords, Worthing Homes’ tenants were generally more
satisfied than tenants at other landlords.
Just to give you a few of the results, 90% of tenants were
satisfied with the overall landlord services, 97% would
describe Worthing Homes as a good landlord and 92%
consider we offer a good level of customer care.
Tenants also awarded high ratings for the quality of the
home (89%), helpfulness of staff (91%), overall repairs
and maintenance service (89%) and many aspects of
the actual repairs service (89% - 95%).
As part of the survey we asked you to tell us which
services were most important to you. It was not
surprising that most people considered the repairs
and maintenance service to be the most
important. You also placed high importance on
the quality of your home, being kept informed
and that anti social behaviour was dealt with.
An injunction was obtained against 1 case.
For more information see our anti-social behaviour
leaflet.
So what are we going to do with all this
information?
If you would like a copy to be sent to you please
contact your Neighbourhood Housing Officer or
Scheme Manager, or you can pick one up from our
office at Davison House.
We will be using the results with all of the
other information we have gathered through
our ‘Fit for our Future’ review to help us plan
and develop our services.
To promote the Fishersgate Children and Family Centre which
will be opening late 2009, they are having a fun day on
26 September at Fishersgate Recreation Ground between
11am-7pm.
Come along and enjoy free entertainment and information
all day.
For full details contact Herbie Taylor on 01273 417 184.
page 8 Home News summer 2009
‘Homes continues to provide an excellent
Housing service’
We know there are opportunities for improvement particularly by placing a
greater focus on tenant opinion.
Finally a big thank you to everyone who completed the survey form, it was long but it has given us lots
of information so we can improve our services to you.
The executive summary of the report can be seen at www.worthing-homes.org.uk or contact Ruth
Crack who will arrange for a copy to be sent to you.
Some of you made additional comments on the survey forms. As the survey was anonymous the NHF
will not pass on the addresses of any of the respondents. If you want us to contact you about these
comments please ring 01903 703 102 or speak to your Neighbourhood Housing Officer who will deal
with the matter.
Home News summer 2009 page 9
Meadow Crescent Project by Stefy Potter-Blake
In May 2008, I was the Neighbourhood Housing Officer for Meadow Crescent. On one of my visits to the area, I
noticed that many gardens in the Crescent had been left un-maintained and were full of rubbish. Some of the
communal areas inside the blocks of flats had graffiti on all the walls and the flooring was in desperate need of
repair. After receiving several comments about how unclean the area was in general and how unhappy residents
were, we consulted residents there and asked them what they wanted to change.
It was agreed that Worthing Homes would repair all communal front doors, repaint all communal hallways and
residents front doors, replace all communal flooring in the blocks and block up the areas under the stairs. The
residents chose the colour of the paint to go on their walls and front doors, as well as the colour of the new
flooring.
The overgrown gardens would be cut back on the condition that residents would maintain the gardens afterwards.
With the help of the Community Payback Team all gardens that needed attention were cleared. They also helped
with the painting of the communal hallways. They worked there once a week and as you can see from the pictures
below, a huge improvement has been made. Work is still in progress, but overall the project has been a great
success and now residents are setting up their own gardening club to help them grow plants and maintain their
gardens.
appy 10th Birthday Worthing Homes. Celebrating 10 years of
Worthing Homes as housing association set me thinking what
it was like at the time of the sale of our homes from
Worthing Borough Council.
As with all births it was hectic. There was a change of hats for
me from Chair of a Tenants Association to Tenant Director,
with many meetings to plan and put into operation our new
improved services, always with the residents views included.
And now our latest survey states that we the residents are very
pleased with the service we receive, so that is very welcome
news.
For me one of the biggest changes was getting to grips with IT;
mobile phones and computers this was a new world for me!
Ginny Hewlett, Tenant Director and Also, getting to know the staff and using their first names was
as strange for me as it was for them. How things have changed!
Vice-chair, Board of Directors
Now with double glazed windows, gas central heating, kitchens
and bathrooms I think we can say, “Thank you” and “Well done Worthing Homes” and
look forward to the next 10 years and what that will bring.
H
Sheltered housing news
Way
Brougham Road Social Committee organised an Easter tea on Good Friday. This was
well attended and the residents were entertained by an organist, who everyone agreed
was very good. Hot cross buns, cakes and tea/coffee were served by the committee
members and scheme managers.
Two brave residents made their own Easter bonnet and as they were both excellent,
Rose Mills and Irene Talty were each given first prize of a delicious Easter egg.
Alley way before tidyup
Back garden before
Communal area before
There was also a large raffle which went down very well and another resident
Mr Paul Lucas had also run a raffle at his expense for the RNIB, Chestnut Tree House
and Cancer Research. Everyone went home a lot heavier!
The committee have several other events including: in May a quiz night in June a trip to
Old Barn Nursery, in July a barbecue and in August another trip to Arundel.
ast week I had the opportunity to tour our new development on
the site of the old Norfolk Hotel in Worthing. The building, with
its attractive shape and porthole windows, is very much in keeping
with our seaside tradition and is due for completion in October 2009. It
will provide 20 flats at affordable rent and 31 at intermediate rent. The
lucky new residents at the top of the building will have fantastic views
from the South Downs to the coast.
Following requests from the newly formed Worthing and Chichester
Hospital Trust, we have been very pleased to offer 31 units as keyworker
accommodation since the building is also a short walk from the hospital.
After years of uncertainty we are now lucky to have both the assurance
of a National Park and an excellent NHS hospital on our doorstep. I hope
you spend more time in the park than the hospital!
L
Alley way afterwards
page 10 Home News summer 2009
Back garden afterwards
Communal area afterwards
Paul Stanforth, Chair,
Board of Directors
Home News summer 2009 page 11
What’s going on in
the Resource Centre?
CONTACT INFORMATION
Davison House, North Street, Worthing, BN11 1ER
Home News is published by Worthing Homes and is
distributed free to all customers.
Please contact us if you would like Home
News in: Braille, large print, on audio tape or in
another language.
Chief Executives office:
Ann Watkins: PA to The Directors
01903 703 110
Editor:
Sue Brown:
01903 703 132
Reception and main switchboard number:
01903 703 100
Fax:
01903 703 111
Website: www.worthing-homes.org.uk
Email: [email protected]
Typetalk exchange:
dial 18001
(followed by the full number including the code you wish to
call).
PLEASE CONTACT THE DEPARTMENT YOU NEED ON THE
DIRECT DIAL NUMBER LISTED BELOW:
Repairs/day to day maintenance:
01903 703 101
Non urgent repairs can also be reported through our website
www.worthing-homes.org.uk
Emegency repair line outside office hours: 01903 703 100
Greenspace
01903 703 121
or [email protected]
Housing services:
01903 703 102
Care services/RedAssure
01903 703 103
or www.redassure.org.uk
Planned maintenance:
01903 703 104
or [email protected]
Finance:
01903 703 105
Resource Centre:
01903 703 171
Community House:
01903 209 006
Tenant Directors:
Ginny Hewlett
01903 605 951
Bernard Notley
01903 233 171
Pensions advice drop in - Every
Tuesday from 9.30-12.30pm just
pop along or ring 01273 364 756
to make an appointment.
Age Concern drop in - advice
available every Wednesday
from 10-12pm.
Creative writing - group meet
Wednesdays at 2pm.
Digital art - Thursday
afternoon from 2pm.
Corky’s Computer Club Thursday from 1.30pm in
room 2 at the Resource Centre.
Adult Literacy Classes through
Adult Education - various
classes during the week ring
Adult Education on 01903 703
565.
The rooms at the Resource
Centre are available to rent.
For more information please
ring Resident Involvement on
10903 703 177 or look at our
website.
What can RedAssure
offer you?
24 hour confidence at
the touch of a RedAssure
button.
Fast, friendly, effective
help in an emergency.
Home visits when
needed.
Daily well-being calls.
Range of products to
offer you reassurance in
your own home.
Local maintenance and
servicing of equipment.
Free demonstrations with
no obligation.
24-hour
confidence at
the touch of
the redAssure
button
RedAssure
Independent living
PART OF WORTHING HOMES
[email protected]
design and layout by Ruth Crack
page 12 Home News summer 2009