Issue 12
The poverty issue April 2016
Welcome to Issue 12 of the Greater Manchester Housing Providers focus on poverty newsletter. The purpose of the newsletters is to share ideas, projects and good practice. It’s been over a year since we signed up to our Anti-Poverty Pledges. This issue provides a recap on what we’ve pledged to do and summarises the progress we’ve made in that time. It also includes details of some of our ongoing projects plus some new articles from housing providers working across Greater Manchester. Our cover picture shows some of the residents who are involved in the Willow Hey community development and outdoor training centre in Bolton, more on page 15. Our Pledges In 2014 we signed up to a set of pledges that set out what we intended to do individually and collectively to tackle poverty in our communities. We made a commitment to review progress after a year and report back on how we are doing. A great deal of work has happened since we signed the pledges; some pledges are well underway with others still a work in progress. This year we intend to refresh our pledges to make sure we are still focussing in the issues that are important to our communities. We welcome your feedback on this.
Pledge 1—Financial Inclusion Supporting and promoting Credit Unions, basic bank accounts, affordable banking and credit products and resources such as ‘jam jar’ accounts. We’ve previously featured articles on our joint work with local Credit Unions and all housing providers are involved in this type of work to some degree. It’s simpler for those providers who are based within one area as they will tend to have just one local credit union to link up with. This can be more difficult for the Housing Associations who operate over a wider geography and so have more than one Credit Union to deal with as not all Credit Unions have the same offer. However Adactus have approached this differently by agreeing a partnership with one credit union that will cover all their tenants regardless of where they live. We’re continuing to promote Credit Union lending as one of the more affordable borrowing options for our customers plus we promote them as an option for saving. We’re also working in partnership with high street banks to make it easier for our customers to set up a basic bank account as we wait for Credit Unions to develop their offer as part of the national Credit Union Expansion Project. Some examples of our work are
Stockport Homes have introduced a payment card which has seen strong take up and many payments being made out of hours.
Bolton at Home have provided funding for a town centre high street location which includes a credit union presence plus demonstration items that are available to buy under the Smarterbuys Scheme.
Contour have pulled together information for tenants and staff listing what CUs are in their areas and outlining the services each offers.
Regenda give free CU accounts and are developing a group wide offer with the aim of signing up 1000 customers.
Adactus have a partnership with Unify Credit Union, who are based in Wigan, which means that all Adactus tenants throughout Greater Manchester and all Adactus employees are eligible to become members of Unify. They offer payroll deduction for employees who want to join the credit union and hold regular promotions to encourage staff to think about joining the credit union.
First Choice Homes have negotiated a lower burden of ID proof with their local branch of Barclays to make it easier for customers to open an account.
One Manchester have funded work on the Engage Account in partnership with the local Credit Union. This can be opened via their four outreaches within local Jobcentres. Feedback from JC staff has been very positive.
Mosscare promote the Halifax basic bank account via their mobile App while Contour have chosen to promote the new Post Office accounts.
Southway operate Southway Solutions, an affordable loan scheme which was a Joseph Rowntree Foundation best practice example.
Great Places Affordable Credit & Essential living Fund Loans – SLA’s have been set up with six local Credit Unions. Great Places can now offer affordable loans for essential living items, whilst supporting local credit unions in all of their Regions.
Stockport Homes have introduced immediate loans in partnership with the Council. Have now made over 40 of these loans and the repayment record to date has been good.
Wigan and Leigh Homes are scoping the opportunity to join the Experian Rental Exchange as a way for customers to improve their credit rating.
Over the year we’ve started to see a growth in the number of projects that are offering affordable furniture and white goods as an alternative to high street credit stores or catalogues
Great Places Housing Group have used tenant dividend funds to support local furniture recycling providers to assist tenants with essential start up packages required to sustain tenancies and bridging the gap caused by the loss of social funds and Community Care Grants.
Bolton at Home have partnered with Emmaus to provide quality second hand furniture packages.
Contour Homes is promoting financial inclusion/fuel poverty by; Our Financial Inclusion Team generated an additional £1,174,952 in 2015-16 in income for Contour Homes tenants. And with that, supported 758 tenants on a range of issues including income maximisation, budgeting, affordable warmth and debt management. Through 2015-16, the Financial Inclusion team have been visiting each of Contour Homes sheltered schemes (usually aimed at over 60s to offer extra tenancy support) to offer a financial wellbeing check to all sheltered tenants. The objective of this project was to ensure that each sheltered tenant had the opportunity to meet privately with a Financial Inclusion Officer and discuss any element of their finances. The project was very well received and turned out to be a real success. In all, the team were able to offer 1-1 support to 48 sheltered tenants and helped to generate an additional £35,145 in income – mainly Pension Credit and Housing Benefit. Great Places Creative Credit Project Oldham Coliseum Theatre is working in partnership with the Social Landlords of Oldham, their financial Inclusion staff and a range of education and community stakeholders to launch a new project from September 2015. The Coliseum will manage the project and be supported by a Steering Group of partners to further develop and evaluate the activities and generate new volunteering and participatory opportunities. The project focuses on the use of the arts and theatre related practice as a method of enabling financial inclusion; reducing anti-social behaviour and providing a
unique way of engaging participants in themes identified as current issues faced by young people and vulnerable adults. There are 3 projects; Illegal Money Lending, Universal Credit and Young Peoples Budgeting. Experian Rental Exchange In January 2016, we notified our tenants that we would be joining the Experian Rental Exchange to help improve credit scores through the use of rent payment details. The letter gave tenants the opportunity to opt out and some tenants did just that. However, the majority of tenants have remained in the scheme and we began to share rental payment data in March. Smarterbuys We are now coming to the end of year 2 of the Smarterbuys franchise which New Charter Homes is a member along with 4 other registered providers. The scheme provides an alternative to high cost lenders and allows tenants to pay weekly over a 2 year period whilst savings a small amount in to a credit union account. Money Wise Team The welfare benefits and debt advice teams have been busy as ever helping tenants increase their income through unclaimed benefits and getting to grips with debt problems. In the period April 2015 to February 2016, the team has secured £1.075m in unclaimed benefits for 372 households. In addition, the team has helped 271 households deal with debt amounting to £2.2m, an average of £8.1k per household. In addition to the team, New Charter Homes sponsors two CAB workers who run surgeries on two of our estates allowing people to get the advice they need at a local level. There have been 92 tenants using the service for the first time with 394 issues. Around 300 of our tenant households are currently accessing the service and for those with financial issues, there have been gains of £109k in additional benefits being claimed. MiNT – Money Information Network Tameside MiNT is a financial inclusion group that gets together on a quarterly basis to discuss local issues around financial exclusion and what we are doing to address those issues. It gives us the opportunity to work together and share resources when we take on any projects, for example, the Stop Loan Shark bus tour and the financial inclusion conferences we occasionally run for tenants. The group has been in place since 2004 and we are proud that we have kept together over such a long period. MiNTED We remain a partner of the lottery funded MiNTed project which is a service that has been funded to help tenants make sense of their money. Our aim is to increase the number of
people we are referring to the project particularly as more people are moving on to Universal Credit, benefit freeze and the potential impact the benefit cap. You can follow MiNTed here. 2nd Generation Furnishings Set up by three New Charter tenants, 2nd Generation Furnishings provides local people in need with second hand furniture for their homes. Their key mission is to improve people’s lives, but by generating a small amount of income, they can also put more into the business and help more residents. By reusing old furniture, 2nd Generation is helping people in real hardship but also reducing landfill and fly-tipping in our communities too. Tom, one of the founder members said: “We love what we do and believe people come first. We’d seen van loads of quality furniture and white goods going to landfill which we knew people could have benefited from instead. So we decided to take action. “With support from New Charter, we’ve developed a strong partnership and help them by recycling furniture from properties that become empty. We also learnt business planning, health and safety and communications skills to help us get set up.” 2nd Generation Furnishings is a registered charity and has a great team of volunteers and it couldn’t run without them. The team has provided voluntary work experience to local residents, some of whom have now got paid employment. 2nd Generation is open to the public six days a week (closed Sundays) for browsing and buying. www.2ndgenerationfurnishings.co.uk/
Hardship Fund Our hardship fund continues to be popular and offers help to people struggling with debt or find themselves in a difficult temporary situation. This year we have received 26 applications with an amount of have been successful. An amount of £5,000 being awarded to tenants to help them through a crisis. Home Contents Insurance We have had a home contents insurance scheme in place for around 20 years now and 1,515 tenants are part of the scheme. Our more recent development in this area has been the introduction of a crisis cover product which gives limited cover to tenants for a cost of 50p per week. Our own research tells us that many of our tenants don’t think about home contents insurance at all and many think they do not have anything of any worth.
Southway Advice Services Team make record gains for tenants To respond to welfare reform changes and the loss of many advice services in Manchester Southway increased the number of staff to support tenants with money and benefit issues. We now have an Advice Services Team made up of 7 members of staff helping tenants with debts, money management (budgeting, bank accounts and financial capability), and welfare /benefits issues, including taking cases to tribunal level. An Employment Adviser has now been added to the team to help tenants prepare for work and link them to local employers and find jobs. Over the last year the team has been particularly successful dealing with 942 case issues and generating over £2 million in financial gains for tenants. Over £179 k has been gained in Housing Benefit alone.
Campaigning and lobbying with local government and other stakeholders for legislation that restricts the operations of high interest loan providers on the high street and online, and for more affordable credit to be released by banks. Working in partnerships to combat the activities of illegal money and doorstep lenders. Since this pledge was adopted there have been some restrictions placed on the activities of payday lenders, some effective from July 2014 and an interest rate cap effective from January 2015. Work around payday lenders is done in partnership with organisations such as Sharkstoppers and the Illegal Money Lending Team and tends to be targeted at areas where there are known problems with loan sharks though all providers have trained their staff to recognise the signs of illegal money lending.
One Manchester continue to run the Manchester Financial Inclusion conference which will include payday lenders.
Irwell Valley are actively working in Salford and Tameside where they have seen increased reports of activity.
Contour have teamed up with the local Credit Union in Salford where they know there is loan shark activity, they have proactively engaged with tenants in this area.
First Choice Homes have given further training to front line teams and this has resulted in a case being opened by the National IMLT. They will campaign in the affected areas to coincide with the perpetrator being charged.
As part of their Customer Conference in November, First Choice Homes will give advice to customers on how to check if their money lender is illegal by using an online tool provided by the National Money Lending Service.
Stop loan sharks charter We joined with partners to launch the ‘Stop Loan Shark Charter’. On Monday 18th May 2015 the Tameside ‘STOP Loan Sharks Charter’ was signed by representatives of nine partner agencies at the Head Office of the New Charter Group. The agencies represented were New Charter Homes, Ashton Pioneer Homes, Tameside MBC, Tameside CAB, Cash Box Credit Union and Trading Standards. Organisations that had pledged support included Age UK Tameside, Peak Valley Housing and Greater Manchester Police. This was followed by training for 140 staff from the agencies and a bus tour around Tameside to raise awareness that help is available
Continuing to support and promote My Home Finance as an alternative to doorstep lending. Many housing providers prefer to promote alternatives such as the Credit Union or Smarterbuys which offer lower interest rates. Only a few providers have chosen to actively promote this scheme due to its high interest rates. Interest rates offered to people on low incomes can often be much higher than the rates generally advertised due to the perceived extra risk. People with a poor credit rating also have very limited borrowing options. My Home Finance is marketed primarily as an alternative to doorstep and payday lenders. They provide loans for most purposes and can also help with bank accounts and budgeting. Benefits are taken into account as income and a poor credit history isn’t a bar to getting a loan.
One Manchester, Guinness, Mosscare and Wythenshawe Community Housing currently promote the scheme.
Pledge 2—Fuel Poverty Supporting and promoting existing energy initiatives such as the availability of free insulation and energy switching services. Most housing providers have trained their frontline staff in Carbon Literacy which means that they are equipped to advise customers on how to save money on fuel bills. We’re all promoting energy switching services, many supported by in-house staff. Some are promoting external sources of advice such as Billscutter, Community Switch and My Home Energy Switch.
Contour have a void process in place that involves Billscutter registering the new tenant with the option of a free comparison and switch service after sign up.
First Choice Homes have found that pre-payment customers appear far more open to changing supplier than credit customers.
First Choice Homes continue to support the award winning Warm Homes Oldham scheme which is removing over 1,000 residents from fuel poverty every year.
Guinness are trialling new ways to reach customers and have created a Mobile Internet Platform so customers can view guides on their smartphone.
Northwards are offering their services to private residents at competitive rates.
Great Places Housing Officers have teamed up with the Financial Inclusion Team to identify tenants on their patch that would benefit from some financial wellbeing support based on fuel poverty.
Big Energy Saving Bus Tour During November, Oldham-based housing association, Aksa Homes ran a six-day event in its neighbourhoods with a ‘Big Energy Saving Bus Tour’. The bus spent a day in each of Aksa Homes’ neighbourhoods in Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester and Bury, where staff was on hand to give tenants one-to-one support to compare energy prices and help them to switch suppliers to reduce their bills. The project, which aims to reduce residents’ energy payments, is being targeted at those most in need. Evidence shows that vulnerable customers and hard to reach groups are often those most detached from the energy market as they can lack confidence to discuss price comparisons with suppliers and switch energy companies to make savings. Tackling fuel poverty is just one part of Aksa Homes’ wider neighbourhood plans to improve health and wellbeing and life opportunities for residents as well as reducing crime and antisocial behaviour in communities.
The results over the two week bus tour spoke for themselves. Aksa homes managed to engage with over 200 residents, gave one to one switching advice to over 150 residents, with a total saving on switching of £3554. Aksa also made referrals into the Moneycare team and MiNTed and completed 10 warm homes discount applications.
Community Switch We have teamed up with Community Switch to help people switch their supply. We know that many switching services exist on the internet but also know that a good number of tenants do not have access to the internet or they do not have the confidence to use it. Community Switch offers a telephone service to help people make that switch. To date 148 people have made the switch with an expected annual saving of £10k.
Energy Savings tips Some time ago we commissioned a video which is available on ‘you tube’ or through our website, which looks at how to help householders make better use of energy and how to save money as they go along. It’s time to re-launch the video and remind tenants it’s out there. www.newcharterhomes.co.uk/you-and-your-home/energy-saving-tips
Energy efficiency officers Stockport Homes are trying to reduce fuel poverty via the Energy Advice Service it offers, which is made up of two fully qualified Energy Solutions Advisors. The Energy Solutions Advisers (ESA’s) are able to visit customers in their own homes to provide energy advice such as how to understand energy bills, comparisons and switching which can often be a complex process. The ESA’s can also install smart monitors, advise customers on behavioural changes and how to efficiently use heating controls which can reduce energy consumption and bills. Between April 2015 and March 2016 the ESA’s have visited 654 customers with total savings from switches and grants of £22,899.47. These savings include Warm Homes Discounts awarded which amounts to £10,780 and Charis Grants worth £1926.90. The Warm Homes Discount is available from most large electric suppliers and eligible households could receive £140 towards their next winter fuel bills. Applications open in June or July and are based on a first come first served basis depending on household income and benefits combination. The ESA’s also help a number of customers to apply for Charis Grants, these are looked into on an individual basis and if successful maybe awarded money to clear some or all of an energy debt.
Photo shows Energy Solutions Advisor Nicholas Wilson advising a customer on smart metering.
Continuing to make improvements to our existing stock and improve their thermal efficiency. A huge amount of investment has gone into making our homes warmer and more energy efficient. Unfortunately the governments imposed rent reduction which came into effect this month has meant that some providers are having to scale back their plans because of their reduced income. We’re also starting to look at modernising heating systems, replacing electric storage heaters with gas and at new technologies.
Bolton at Home have reduced their programme as a result of the rent reduction.
Irwell Valley HA are reducing water use by specifying smaller water tanks and offering showers.
Contour have implemented new gas connections to enable them to replace electric storage heaters with gas.
Southway are in the process of installing solar panels to 30% of stock
Northwards are working with the National Energy Action charity to pilot new technologies including flue gas heat recovery systems and combined heat and power boilers.
Wigan and Leigh Homes are applying for Renewable Heating Incentive for our air source heat pumps, payments will last for 7 years.
Continuing to develop new properties to a minimum of Code Level 3 which exceeds the energy efficiencies required by 25%. The government announced that it was scrapping the Code for Sustainable Homes from March 2015. New codes are contained within the Building Regulations. Not all providers are involved in building new homes but those that are either meet or exceed the standard. Great Places, Northwards, Contour, and Southway are building some properties to the higher Code 4.
One Manchester are working on developing a fabric first approach for a potential 170 new builds which will offer greater efficiencies and will utilise technologies such as ground source heat pumps
Wigan & Leigh Homes are working on a pilot of 12 low carbon units to silver standard.
Contour highlight two of their recent developments; pictured below is the award winning St Marys Oldham – the first in the North West to provide passivhaus properties and achieve code 6, and Bowker Street in Salford developed to the Breeam excellent/ outstanding standard using low carbon technologies.
Working with AGMA to assess the feasibility of becoming an affordable energy provider. Most providers are still looking at how this develops rather than playing any active role while a few have already decided not to pursue this.
Stockport Homes are progressing with the development of a self-owned biomass supply chain.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group will be an energy provider to four tower blocks with biomass boilers
Pledge 3—Food Poverty Continuing to increase access to affordable fresh fruit and vegetables.
Lots of work is being done in this area and in previous issues we’ve featured many of the community growing projects and healthy eating sessions. We’ve also been making our land available for larger scale food growing schemes, providing planters in public places and operating tool lending schemes. Here are some more examples of what we’ve been doing.
Holiday Kitchen - In summer 2015 a group of 13 housing providers worked together to deliver the Holiday Kitchen pilot across 12 locations. The programme aimed to provide school holiday play, learning and food to families who need it most. Each provider delivered their own locally tailored programme against a standards framework for the activities and the food requirements. A group of nine providers plan to run the programme again in summer 2016, many of them will be running a bigger programme this time around. Unlike 2015, where we had to commission Birmingham University to evaluate the project, the group are looking at an evaluation process that is more suited to our needs and that can be done in-house.
Great Places are continuing with Holiday Kitchen and this year they’ll be running programmes in Oldham, Manchester, Blackpool, Sheffield and Salford.
Bolton at Home are working in partnership with our local foodbank to develop a project that takes a mobile Pantry type service to some of our estates.
Contour have made a commitment to developing allotment spaces where they have unused land.
Stockport Homes have appointed a green space project officer to work in specific neighbourhoods.
First Choice Homes have five estates in central Oldham which have benefitted from their Meal Deal project which was delivered in partnership with the Incredible Aqua Farm. This included the development of a number of communal growing areas, and providing resources for people to grown their own at home including on balconies and window sills. From this a local community group formed who will continue to grow fruit and vegetable in the public green spaces, and be a resource for other local residents. They are reviewing how this approach can now be rolled out in other estates and neighbourhoods.
First Choice Homes have supported several breakfast clubs across Oldham; as a result children whose families have low incomes are able to access healthy free food during school holidays.
Great Places have purchased a Smoothie bike to promote healthy eating/drinking and is a great attraction for events. This is available to rent, please contact Karen Burns 07786110723.
Southway have worked with Sow the City, a Manchester based social enterprise.
Guinness are promoting several different food poverty solutions via their six month Food Sense campaign
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group have several projects as part of Real Food Wythenshawe, a 5 year £1million Big Lottery funded community food campaign that was launched in 2012, with match funding from key partners.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group have set up the Geodome project which is a greenhouse at the Wythenshawe Campus built with Wythenshawe Community Housing Group’s Real Food Team to create a ‘living classroom’ focused on sustainable food production. It gives the local community the opportunity to grow their own fruit and vegetables all year round. Some of the food grown makes its way into the college catering kitchens.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group have established a good relationship with their local market with a Real Food kitchen delivering tasters and recipes.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group have established a Walled Garden in Wythenshawe Park with produce sold at the farm shop and at public events. They have now recruited a part time worker for the shop.
Get growing Breightmet project The Get Growing Breightmet project is now in its third year, the project itself involves working with families in Breightmet by providing gardening/horticultural resources and ongoing support throughout a 9 month period in helping people on low/no income to grow some of their own food at home. In the first year of the project we worked with 6 families, in year two this figure rocketed to 20 families, and this year we are working with 25 families. The project has also provided support to a number of Congolese families in the Breightmet area and has been an aid to the development of friendships between the newly arriving communities and families that are already established on the estate. Over the three years of this project we have added over fifty trees and a hundred fruit bushes into the Breightmet area this will provide residents with fruit for decades to come.
Breightmet Community Food Hub Breightmet community food Hub is a small fenced site off New Lane in Breightmet; the Hub is in its second year of operation, the idea behind the Hub is to provide workshops, sessions and advice about growing food. In year one all of the food grown on the site was given away to local residents many of whom were in deep financial hardship through benefit sanctions. This year the Breightmet Hub will be growing much more food and will provide a veg box scheme to people on the estate where weekly boxes of affordable organically grown vegetables can be collected from UCAN centres of the Hub itself. Beechcroft and Red Lane allotments Work at these two respective allotment sites and has been through the delivery of gardening and horticultural advice and growing resources at both sites during the growing season and beyond, these sessions ran for two years, and we worked with up to fourteen individuals and families. This year the Beechcroft allotment site will be growing a lot food that will be used as part of the veg box scheme, and some will be used in demonstrations providing residents with the skills to cook tasty and healthy meals on a low budget. Growers on the Red Lane site have continued to grow their own food with more new raised beds allocated to residents on the estate. All plot holders on both sites are low and no income families and individuals.
Willow Hey As pictured on our front page, the Willow Hey Community Development project has been established on a one acre disused allotment site in Farnworth, Bolton. The project will essentially be a community development and outdoor training centre for local community residents and children to develop their skills, knowledge and experience in various areas such as horticulture, social enterprises, organic food growing, permaculture, green woodworking, traditional crafts, and environmental projects. Over the last three years Bolton at Homes Community development team has been supporting lots of local individuals, community groups and projects that support community cohesion, improves the local environment, develops community resilience and which have improved the overall health and wellbeing of local people living in the community. One of the high priorities at present due to austerity measures and benefit changes is food poverty, with lots of local people using food banks and in lots of cases going without food. In order to address this we have supported several local outreach projects which have got between 30 and 40 social housing families growing organic healthy fruit and vegetables in their own gardens. Steve Jones who coordinated the project set local people up with poly tunnels, soil, seeds and most importantly had weekly catch ups in the growing season to provide advice, guidance and support to people involved. The project has been a huge success and it has not only impacted on health and wellbeing of community residents involved, it has supported community cohesion in the local area with families from different cultures and communities chatting and building friendships over food growing conversations over the garden fence. More information about the outreach project can be found on www.boltonurbangrowersblog.wordpress.com
The aim on the Willow hey community project is to build on the positive Community Development work which has already been achieved in the local area to tackle food poverty and develop lots of new projects on the willow hey site to tackle some of the issues which are impacting on local people due to benefit changes, austerity cuts, high levels of unemployment, social exclusion and high levels of deprivation. The project will adopt community development approaches to engage and support community groups, local residents, school groups, social inclusion projects, isolated members of the community, NEET young people/adults and disabled residents in the local area.
We will be developing organic food growing information advice and training sessions bringing people from all over the local area.
Local people will be supported to grow their own organic food and learn different ways to cook and eat the produce through outdoor cooking sessions on site.
Upskilling local unemployed people through horticulture, woodworking and traditional skills training courses.
Introduce permaculture and working with nature courses
Address mental health and isolation issues in the local area by supporting social, health and wellbeing sessions.
All of the above sessions which will take place on the Willow hey project will support Community development and resilience in the local and wider community around the site. More information can be found on their Facebook page. For further information contact - Chris Wood Community Development Officer- Bolton at home, Chris.wood@boltonathome.org.uk -07703450630
Cracking Cooking with City West & beyond! Cracking Good Food, a sustainable cooking network run as a social enterprise, has been cooking with residents of City West Housing in Swinton since August of last year, with the project being launched at their allotment site. Amongst the abundance of fruit on the trees, two cooks set about cooking veggie burgers with a yoghurt dip and salad plus a separate veggie stir fry with noodles, much to the delight of the children in particular. They were very keen to get stuck in. Since then cooking has continued with the residents in the portacabin every fortnight. So far they’ve cooked soups, Christmas dinners, mince pies, curries, bread & even hot cross buns, with pies, pastry, lasagnes, fish cakes & shepherd’s pies still to be rolled out. The budding cooks will then be trained up specifically, over 2 days to help them maintain the cooking buzz once this comes to an end in May; not without Cracking Good Food’s continual support of course, these things take a little time and love to get just right. All food that’s cooked & consumed together has been sourced from Fareshare Northwest, an organization that re-distributes unwanted food to communities in need. With UK households throwing away approximately 4.2 million tonnes of good food and drink every year – that’s enough to fill Wembley Stadium 9 times over, each year, this project aims to tackle food waste head on. Cracking Good Food is a sustainable cooking network, which promotes cooking seasonal food from scratch, supporting the local economy and food producers and reducing food waste. It was established in 2010 and has worked with nearly 100 organisations and cooked with over 10,000 people. It runs four Cookery Schools that helps support the running costs of the organization.
Cracking Good Food are delivering a 2 day training package in Manchester on 25th & 26th April that’s designed to meet the needs of community focused organisations and individuals. It’s open to all interested community members who basically want to get their communities cooking good food from scratch! More details on page 31.
Cook Eat Talk Sessions – In partnership with Safeguard Fusion Training and Voluntary Action Oldham. Our tenants in Oldham are cooking, eating and talking with Great Places staff and local dignitaries today. It’s all part of #cookeattalk which will involve a public consultation on tenants taking control of their health and wellbeing as part of GMDevo. This means that certain responsibilities and powers would be transferred from London to the North West, including parts of how we receive healthcare. Lunch prepared by our tenants and members of Voluntary Action Oldham, who’ll also leading the discussion, will be served at 12 noon at Safeguard Group in Chadderton – and it looks like it’s going to be delicious as the ladies from the pop-up café at Crossley and Primrose Community Centres get their aprons on!
Summer project gives Greater Manchester residents a healthy boost Residents across Greater Manchester have taken part in a jam packed programme of events provided by housing association Aksa Homes, part of the New Charter group. Summertime Adventures, a six-week project, aimed to promote health and wellness throughout the summer holidays, by getting adults and children across the region involved in various activities including healthy eating. The project proved to be a huge success and was celebrated with a meal time makeover
event hosted by Jeannette Jackson, well known TV presenter and nutritionist. Jeannette held an interactive cooking session for 45 residents from Oldham, Tameside, Manchester and Bury at Aksa Homes’ enterprise centre, The Launch Pad in Oldham. Residents were given the opportunity to learn new healthy recipes they could cook easily at home, as well as find out about health benefits provided by different food types. Jeannette also provided valuable insight into how diet can affect life-styles such as lack of sleep, diabetes, and weight loss. Mushtaq Khan, Director at Aksa Homes, said: “Health and wellness of our residents is a very important factor. Our Meal Time Makeovers activity has been very well received and has raised awareness across our communities about healthy eating on a budget. We are now looking forward to the forthcoming events we have planned.” Aksa Homes is continuing the health drive by holding ‘Come Dine with Us’ events in the region. Residents will be encouraged to make healthier recipes and will be invited to bring along their own interpretation of Jeannette’s dishes. Everyone will share their ideas together, getting to know their neighbours and improve their feeling of wellbeing through food. Peak Valley Housing in Hattersley, Tameside is tackling food poverty; by supporting residents to establish a community garden in order to grow their own fruit and vegetables The former garden centre is progressing nicely, and once complete. Preparations are really gathering pace, and there’s now a number of raised beds and two large polytunnels, which will soon be re-covered, ready for planting. The group also plan to install a forest area for local school children to enjoy, and there are also plans run training courses for residents looking to brush up on their gardening skills. Tackling poverty in multi storey blocks Stockport Homes East Area Office have a number of initiatives to help tackle poverty. In conjunction with Stockport Foodbank Stockport Homes store food parcels at the area office and in all seven Brinnington high rise blocks. This initiative was set up as families requiring food parcels can sometimes find it difficult to raise the bus fare to visit certain food banks and the parcels can also be quite heavy due to the number of tins. Stockport Homes provide the parcels in the local area and will deliver to any address in Stockport if required. As well as food parcels, Stockport Homes has organised three events where fresh fruit was distributed to tenants free of charge. The events included apples, bananas, oranges etc. but then also some of the more unusual fruits that children especially may never have seen or tasted such as sharon fruits, passion fruits, mangos, coconuts. Stockport Homes have also set up a recycled clothes shop in the foyer of Dunton Towers. The clothes shop is free to anybody in poverty helping them with any items of clothing, from
winter coats, suits for interviews, clothes for children and babies. Most items are donated by staff and friends and family of staff. Referrals are made to the Block Support Officer who distributes the clothes to anybody in need.
Supporting the expansion of models that divert food waste
Coordinating an effort which will support the expansion of bulk buy food
Supporting further coordination of food banks and the development of food co-ops. We’re all supporting our tenants by issuing food bank vouchers where needed and most providers couple this with financial inclusion support such as income maximisation and energy bill reduction work to help make sure that the customer does not need repeat food bank assistance. Some providers are actively supporting their local food banks through food donations, volunteering hours, help with set up costs and business support. Stockport Homes have been the driving force behind the growing network of Pantries, having recently opened their third Pantry. Several other providers have opened up Pantries using their model and Stockport Homes are leading a piece of work which will hopefully see the setting up of a Greater Manchester bulk buying and Pantry support network.
The Pantry – a project conceived by Stockport Homes which has really taken off with several providers now operating their own version of the Pantry Model with plans for more in the pipeline. The Pantry Model utilises a combination of surplus food from FareShare, bulk buying and surplus food from allotments and community growing projects to provide a typical basket of goods worth around £15 for the cost of a £2.50 weekly membership fee. Stockport Homes are about to open their fourth Pantry. They continue to develop their project with the aim of setting up a co-operative and are working with Church Action on Poverty and The Esme Fairburn Foundation to develop a social franchise model and bulk buying network.
Contour have a lunch club in Salford which uses food provided by FareShare.
First Choice Homes tenancy support team have set up a drop in surgery at Oldham foodbank.
Southway have joined FareShare to supply their holiday schemes.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group are a partner in Unit 20, a local food hub.
More Southway tenants are ‘Quids In’ It was thanks to this newsletter that we first learnt about food clubs and it inspired us to develop one of our own and last October saw the opening of our first ‘Quids In’ food club on Merseybank estate in Chorlton. The club has gone from strength to strength and now has over 50 members and with each member paying £2 a week generates more income than needed to pay our food supplier FareShare, so we plan to use the additional funds to provide cooking sessions, summer trips out and
organise picnics for members and their families. A community garden is presently being developed to the rear of the shop so we hope to supplement what we get from FareShare with extra fresh fruit and veg cultivated on the plot. The success of the Chorlton club encouraged us to open more and in February we opened our second ‘Quids In’ club at the Westcroft Centre, one of our learning hubs in Burnage. The club already has 45 members and looks like being as successful as the first. The food clubs were discussed at the latest Financial Inclusion Forum meeting, hosted by Southway, which generated a lot of interest from other member organisations. Both City West and Adactus staff visited our Quids In clubs to see them in operation, chat to the volunteers and generally learn more about what is involved in running a food club. To join tenants have to be claiming Housing benefit, which can be verified easily on our system and ensures we are including those on a low income, whether working or claiming benefits. Members join for 6 months and during that time have a budgeting advice session to look at ways to help them out of food poverty.
“The service has made a huge difference to many families and members have given some really positive feedback about the service.” “I’m on a low income and the money I save means I can put extra in my gas and electric so I don’t have to choose between eating and keeping warm.” “This is an essential service, a great help to myself and my neighbours who joined. It must continue.” “The club is an excellent service, warm and welcoming. The food I get allows me to eat every day which I wasn’t able to do before.”
The picture above shows Elaine with volunteers Bernie and Pat at "Quids in" Chorlton during a visit by Adactus Housing, who are interested in starting up a similar scheme. Below, Elaine Wilkinson welcomes a new Quids In member at the Westcroft club.
Food Cloud FareShare have now developed another project in partnership with Tesco called Food Cloud. This helps redistribute perfectly good food the supermarkets used to throw away. Southway have linked to a local branch of Tesco and receive a text every Tuesday informing us of a time to collect trays of food. The scheme means we can offer an even better deal to our food club members. Pantry network continues to grow The Stockport Homes’ ‘Your Local Pantry’ network of community food stores, where residents can access a weekly grocery shop for just £2.50, has now grown to three sites following the opening of Mottram Street Pantry in the town centre. A Pantry serving Adswood and Bridgehall – Pantry @ No.5 – will open in April with support from Stockport Council’s Neighbourhood Management Team and Equity Housing. There has been interest from over 20 other organisations looking to replicate the Pantry model in their own areas; as a result work has begun to explore the potential of developing a Your Local Pantry franchise offer, in partnership with Church Action on Poverty. Since opening the Pantry network has redistributed over 55 tonnes of food, including 14 tonnes of fruit and vegetables from a local supplier. 683 households have benefitted, saving an average of £520 per year – each Pantry has the potential to save its members £78,000. The Pantries are run by volunteers and provide opportunities for people looking to gain work experience, give something back to their community or just spend a few hours getting to know their neighbours. Over 40 volunteers have supported the project, including 10 Stockport Homes staff – together contributing over 4,500 hours. For more information, please contact Anna Jones, Food Sharing Officer on 0161 474 4760 or email anna.jones@stockporthomes.org
Pledge 4—Digital Inclusion Continuing to explore opportunities to provide or procure a low cost or subsidised broadband product for our tenants. This pledge is included in the GM Digital Inclusion Charter that housing providers were invited to sign up to. This work continues to be coordinated at a GM level. Alongside this some providers have already set up free Wi-Fi in specific locations such as sheltered schemes or tower blocks or they issue free dongles as part of a training package. This work has been affected by the governments imposed rent reduction with Symphony having to pause work on a deal that was nearing conclusion. Other housing providers have not yet been able to find a solution that is financially viable for both them and the customer.
Progress continues to be made at a local level with several examples of free Wi-Fi being installed in tower blocks and sheltered housing schemes.
Northwards have worked with Manchester CC and other RPs to jointly tender for this and are currently assessing the bids received.
First Choice Homes have mapped all areas in the borough of Oldham where free Wi-Fi internet connectivity is available and now have an interactive map that will be put on their website to guide customers to low/no cost internet access. For most customers this will meet the GM Charter objective of having access to Wi-Fi internet within a 10 minute walk of where they live.
Irwell Valley HA are about to install free Wi-Fi in one block and are in negotiations for service to three tower blocks.
Mosscare have installed free Wi-Fi in four sheltered schemes and are exploring a possible expansion on this.
Southway have installed Wi-Fi and free broadband in three blocks and this is now included as standard in their specification for new build flats.
Southway are exploring the feasibility of a home connectivity pilot in three neighbourhoods with Community UK.
Stockport Homes have internet access in five tower blocks with free Wi-Fi in three.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group are in discussion with their network supplier to introduce free Wi-Fi in key public areas.
Increasing the provision of free ICT and training.
Providing internet access via IT hubs in our offices and community buildings. Access to free ICT - most providers have at least one location where customers can access free ICT with some support and many providers have multiple locations, some operated with partners or the community. These are sometimes linked to work clubs. Free guest Wi-Fi is also offered at many of our premises. Training – many providers are recruiting digital champions to help roll out training. Many make use of external companies or resources for access to basic IT courses, signposting tenants to what is available. The focus has understandably been on helping tenants get online for benefit claims and job search. We are often the first point of contact for those who are struggling to enter employment and access job coaching and CV support.
Several providers have mapped out free Wi-Fi spots in their neighbourhoods and made the information available via their website.
St Vincent’s HA run computer classes in eight community venues with funding from the Tinder Foundation and partnership with an IT provider.
Bolton at Home use social value money to provide training and are just about to evaluate this with a view to being more targeted in what we offer to reach more people and get better value for money.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group have renamed their project Wythenshawe Digital to reflect the focus on skills rather than connectivity. Delivering digital huddles to eight customers at a time using a redesigned training package that addresses multiple digital skills basic in line with the national GoOn standards.
One Manchester are using social value money to fit out an IT suite in one of their high rises.
Mosscare are piloting the use of CAB advice online kiosks.
First Choice Homes have set up a hub within the foodbank.
Social Isolation—not specifically covered in our pledges though it does have some links to our digital inclusion work and getting people connected, we’ve seen a few projects emerging that aim to tackle social isolation which can be all the more acute when combined with a lack of funds and therefore a lack of opportunities to socialise.
Contour Homes tackling digital inclusion More than 60 Contour Homes sheltered housing tenants took their first steps online together, thanks to a series of North West events to celebrate Be Online Week (15th –28th February). Residents in Contour Homes Sheltered schemes were given the chance to get online. The sessions are aimed at health and wellbeing and tenants were shown how to access NHS choices website (searching for local doctor/dentist/ how to order a prescription online, healthy weight loss ) alongside an introduction to Skype and Facebook. Research indicates that those that living in social rented housing are more likely to experience poverty, social exclusion and digital exclusion compared to people living in other tenures. Contour feels that it is best placed to address some of these issues particularly in supporting its customers into training and empowerment opportunities. The sessions took place at sheltered schemes across the North West and was dedicated to health, and those attending were shown how to use the NHS choices website to search the web for a doctor or dentist, and how to place a digital order for a prescription, alongside an introductions to Skype and Facebook. The workshop was a big success, supporting more than a dozen residents to take their first steps online. The sessions took place over a 3 hour period and held in the comfort of the scheme where the residents lives. 15 people gained new skills to help them with their finances such as banking and paying bills on-line. Resident Phoebe Russell, aged 85 from Edwards court in Stockport, said: ’I learnt some things I didn’t know about the internet, and will be using the NHS Choices website to help me’. Shanine Meadowcroft, Community Investment officer for Contour Homes, and organiser of the event, said: ‘The wellbeing of our customers is very important to us, so it made sense to link the session to health and show the residents how easily some daily tasks can be carried
out online.’ Be Inspired, the organisation who ran the session, work across the country to deliver a range of digital training programmes to help people get online.. Lisa Duffy who runs the session from Be Inspired said. It is becoming crucial to get online to not only save money but also to reconnect with old friends. Encouraging elderly people to get online and be safe whilst doing so is important.’ Picture of Hazel Grove MP William Wragg and Phoebe Russell. The session was part of a series of events hosted by Contour Homes during the fortnight campaign, which supported more than 60 tenants to brush up on their digital skills and knowledge. Following on from the taster sessions Contour Homes now have over 40 residents who have signed up for further learning and will now participate on a 6 week course aimed at health and wellbeing websites, Skype, Facebook and family history. Dementia carers befriending project Stockport Homes in partnership with local social enterprise Starting Point CLP, is mid-way through a pilot project supporting carers of dementia sufferers to get online. This is being delivered through six one to one sessions in the person’s home, with connectivity and equipment provided where needed. The aim of the project is to improve their skills and confidence, with a view to enabling the carers to access respite care to attend community based digital sessions. Six residents are taking part in the pilot. Two are recently bereaved and feeling very socially isolated as their families are not local and they felt more IT knowledge could help them to communicate with their families more regularly, as well as access local activity and support information. Another participant is the founder of a local support group for carers of dementia sufferers who needs more IT skills to be able to better support her group. A further bid is being developed to extend the project more widely across the borough.
Picture shows participant Kath Hardman, who cares for her husband with dementia. Kath has put a lot of what she learnt into practise especially the Excel parts to help with keeping the books for the Brereton luncheon club. She is also now able to build on photos for her husband’s dementia book.
‘Click in the Community’ "Click in the Community" aims to help mainly senior people who live in a community of high rise housing in Edgeley to get on-line and stay safe on-line. York Street Residents Association (YSRA) found that the area and the needs of people are changing:
43% of heads of households aged over 55.
People are living longer, but experiencing poor health, have mobility and mental health problems, but are eager to live active lives.
New technology and services moving “digital by default” mean that we have to work harder to make sure older people are not excluded by technology.
Senior people in York Street are 'digitally excluded' because they lack skills and equipment to go on-line
Senior people who are housebound are both isolated and digitally excluded
From our existing computer group we have found that 50% of the senior people we help have mild or early dementia that creates additional barriers to learning than just learning about new technology - for both learners and volunteer trainers. Picture from Launch of “click in the Community 16th February 2016
YSRA have been given a grant of £8,922 from “Awards for All” to further develop its successful computer group for older people. With help from this Lottery grant, our solution is to:
Recruit two extra "Community Clickers" and provide them with skills training and equipment to expand local volunteer led computer training
Provide training and equipment to enable these volunteers to include as many people as possible by delivering training in people’s homes and the community centre with accessible software.
Provide training for the local heroes to stay safe while working in people’s homes and skills to train and support new local heroes as well as specialist skills including supporting senior people who have dementia.
Continuing to provide communities with recycled IT equipment. Several housing providers are involved in this activity with others supporting community projects that recycle equipment.
Northwards are not pursuing this as the cost of new equipment is coming down and the quality of recycled equipment isn't always good. Instead they offer advice on the best
deals.
One Manchester have a partnership with MMU to procure their recycled equipment for community groups.
First Choice Homes recently recycled 25% of their equipment following an upgrade.
Pledge 5—Employment, Skills & The Living Wage Pay the Living Wage Seek accreditation with the Living Wage Foundation as Living Wage employers Support a Greater Manchester Living Wage campaign to promote the adoption of a Living Wage as set by the Living Wage Foundation. Most providers are now paying the living wage with the few who are unable to do so due to funding restrictions and/or contract limitations having made their position clear. Accreditation requires an organisation to start the process and agree timescales for their contractors and suppliers to be living wage employers. The following providers are shown as accredited on the Living Wage Foundation website
City West
Eastlands Homes
First Choice Homes Oldham
Northwards Housing
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing
Salix Homes
Southway Housing Trust
Symphony Housing Group
Trafford Housing Trust
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group
Bolton at Home and One Manchester are working on becoming accredited.
First Choice Homes have signed up to the Oldham Fair Employer Charter and all their procurement exercises now include the requirement for bidders to confirm that they will pay at least the Living Wage if they are successful at gaining the contract.
City West hosted a conference in 2015 to look at in-work poverty and what role housing providers could play.
Mosscare are considering only working with employers who pay the Living Wage.
Great Places Cheap as Chips Project Social Investment Team’s Keira Burns and Poverty & Partnership Co-Ordinator Karen Burns have been working closely with staff from The In Partnership Project to offer employment and skills support and engagement projects to the customers living there. We are excited about a new project named by tenants and staff called ‘Cheap As Chips’ which launched in March on a 3 month pilot. The project which is being run by tenant volunteers and will provide In Partnership tenants with affordable items like tea, coffee, milk, sanitary and hygiene products has opened its doors. Not only will this be more affordable for tenants but we are hoping it will stop tenants venturing out late at night for essential items and will help new tenants to settle in as they often arrive without anything. The idea for the project came from Cheryl Ellement, Project Support Worker so it’s been a real team effort.
Keira said ‘’The shop has been planned, set up and run by tenant volunteers with our help and support. In return they will receive support to progress, relevant voluntary experience, a certificate for volunteering and on completion of the 3 month piolet a tablet or huddle to use for e- learning and personal use. For me it’s a great engagement tool, I am hopeful that those involved will go onto further training and other project work.’’ We have advertised the volunteering opportunities within the scheme and had a good response, interviews took place on the 19th January and we have recruit 3 tenant volunteers, which is fab.
Debbie Whewell, In Partnership Service Manager said ‘’ This new initiative at IPP will give the residents involved more confidence and the opportunity to gain relevant experience like cash handling, stock control, customer service and team work. I am excited to see how the project progresses.’’ We officially launched the project on the 23rd March, we celebrated this with staff and tenants and enjoyed a busy first day serving customers! We will be reviewing the potential to turn this project into a sustainable small business over the coming months.
Continue to recruit and employ local residents wherever possible. Activities range from promoting job opportunities to tenants, ring fencing certain positions, to setting targets for the number of local people employed, though some providers prefer to recruit strictly on merit.
Northwards prioritise entry level posts to North Manchester postcodes only.
Great Places have created an Employment and Skills manager post to deliver a more targeted approach.
Symphony have a group wide Works for Me project which targets tenants in Greater Manchester. In the last 12 months over 50 tenants have been supported into work with the group, grounds maintenance, development, asset management and other employers.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group advertise and recruit for entry level jobs through their Talent Pool. This is a database of local, work ready people. The employment and enterprise team support individuals to apply for these positions. It is not just WCHG jobs recruited through this mechanism – they also help businesses large and small recruit to their posts using this model.
Continue to offer apprenticeships to our young people and other routes into employment to our tenants generally. The vast majority of providers offer apprenticeships. Some also work with partners to provide additional opportunities. Examples of other routes to employment were preemployment courses, work clubs, volunteering and work placement opportunities, graduate scheme.
Manchester Athena - The Work Company have recently won a £3.5 million European Social Fund contract for a ‘Skills for Employment’ pilot. Athena is part of the winning consortium and will be delivering a mix of skills and work placements. One Manchester (City South) will hold the contract with The Work Company on behalf of Athena. This programme is now live and referrals can be made directly to The Work Company on 07595 466883. New Charter are leading on another Athena bid around ‘Building Better Opportunities’. A decision on that is not expected until May 2016.
First Choice Homes regularly support DWP Jobcentre Plus placements that enable local unemployed people aged 18-24 years to gain experience within housing. The placements
support FCHO for 30 hours a week for 8 weeks in a variety of roles. In the past 12 months they have had 30 placements and 12 of these have gone into employment.
First Choice Homes have in the past 12 months supported 74 volunteers with approximately 2820 hours and completed 1593 training hours. 22 volunteers have gained employment.
Stockport Homes have a Graduate scheme in place and have supported three graduates into supported placements.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group support people into self-employment through an Enterprise Centre offering incubation and managed workspace at affordable rates, and business advice/seminars to help people start up in business.
Creating Employment opportunities – The Pop Up Shop Part of creating improvements to the Merseybank shopping parade has included creating a pop up shop which tenants can rent for only £15 a day. This allows them to test ideas, seeing if products sell well enough to be developed into a full time business.
The shop has been rented for clothes and jewellery making and most recently by a tenant who has developed a business selling home-made cup-cakes.
Poverty Proofing Some providers now include poverty as part of their Equality Analysis so that the impact of policy changes are considered in the context of poverty in addition to the protected characteristics required by law.
Anything else? This section brings you news from outside the housing sector that links to the work we’re doing. Following on from the article on page 17 we’ve been asked to give a shout out for some training that you might be interested in. Cracking Good Food are delivering a 2 day training package in Manchester on 25th & 26th April that’s designed to meet the needs of community focused organisations and individuals. It’s open to all interested community members who basically want to get their communities cooking good food from scratch! COOKBank: Train the Trainer 2 Day Course - Setting up a Community Cooking Club 25th & 26th April 2016—MERCi, Ancoats, Manchester M4 The 2 day Train the Trainer programme: COOKBank - Setting up a Community Cooking Club will include the following:
Defining ‘Good’ Food
How to overcome the many barriers to cooking healthy food from scratch
Resourceful financial solutions to food poverty & food waste
Logistics of setting up & running a Cracking ‘Good’ Community cooking club
A hearty meal! You will deliver a cooking workshop to each other incorporating these messages at the end of the 2 day training
A full 40 page colour Toolkit as a guide for future support at the end of the training.
Certificate of Achievement
The course costs £200 per person, inclusive of everything with a discount of £20 given per person for subsequent attendees from the same community group. In ADDITION, we’re offering a special package of 4 subsequent cooking classes in your community, supported by one of our Cooks, who will be able to provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate your newly honed skills with the reassurance of your trainer being on hand to guide you through and deal with any issues.
Cracking Good Food is a sustainable cooking network, which promotes cooking seasonal food from scratch, supporting the local economy and food producers and reducing food waste. It was established in 2010 and has worked with nearly 100 organisations and cooked with over 10,000 people. It runs 4 Cookery Schools that helps support the running costs of the organisation. Further details tracey@crackinggoodfood.org All food, refreshments & materials provided www.crackinggoodfood.org/communityoutreach
Will you help give a child a better start in life? Reading well is one of the best routes out of poverty for the UK's poorest children: they do better at school and in the workplace and are better placed to give their own children the best start. However, every year in our country, 40% of children from poorer backgrounds leave primary school unable to read as well as they should. Will you help us give all our children a brighter future by becoming a Born to Read volunteer?
Why we want you Do you enjoy reading with and talking to children? Are you passionate about reading? Would you like to support your local primary school in helping children achieve? Then we would love you to volunteer with us. What you will be doing As a volunteer you will provide one-to-one support through playing word games with a child, listening to what they have to say and of course, reading with them. By volunteering to help poorer children improve their reading, boost their confidence and improve their prospects. And you will be giving them a great gift: the lifelong love of reading. What’s so great about volunteering? Volunteering is a great way to meet new people, gain experience of working with children and feel the satisfaction of making a difference in your community. We will provide full training, ongoing support and access to a wide range of exciting resources to support you in your role.
How to get involved Become a volunteer reading helper in your local area. You could give a child the skills and confidence they need for a brighter future. To find out more: www.savethechildren.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/born-to-read
And finally…
Thank you to everyone who submitted articles.
Don’t forget we need your stories on any of the work you are doing to tackle poverty for the next issue due out in July. We’ve all made a commitment to share our ideas and initiatives so send your articles in however long or short they are, and please try to include pictures wherever possible.
Also let us know if you’d like to be added to the mailing list.
Please send all feedback, articles and suggestions to Julie.Ralph@boltonathome.org.uk
...Thank you