The poverty issue Autumn 2017
Welcome to Issue 18 of the Greater Manchester Housing Providers anti-poverty newsletter, shining a light on the work we do to help reduce poverty and some of the projects and communities we work with. Our cover picture is from Be Social, a club for people over 50 in Trafford to be active, make friends and enjoy life. More on page 33. The forgotten welfare gap in older age It’s timely that we feature a project aimed at older people on our cover as this month a blog from the University of Manchester explains how welfare reform and austerity has affected the growing numbers of older people; Ongoing research into food insecurity shows older people are at risk of undernutrition because of poverty, or because they don’t get the support they need to shop, cook and eat. Interviews with older people using foodbanks have highlighted the challenges many older people can face. Some were having food parcels delivered by the foodbanks as they were unable to go themselves or did not want to be seen going. 1
As the size of the older population continues to grow, the reductions in local authority spending on social care raise concerns about their long-term welfare.
Poverty and social isolation in old age is increasing. Older people living alone tend to eat less. This is why projects such as Be Social and a project featured in Issue 14, Strictly Lunch at the Sunshine Café, are so needed. You can read the full blog here. Continuing with this theme, the GM Food Leads met in June and a smaller working group met this month to look at the scope for a collaboration which would build on what we are already doing individually. There are two types of project under consideration which are
Using food to tackle social isolation—bringing together a few factors including community cooking, improving cooking skills and knowledge, opportunities for communal eating, cooked food deliveries linked to befriending and using technology to link people and projects.
Linking food growing to employment opportunities and retail—building on the allotment type projects we already have to provide work experience, build skills and employment/enterprise opportunities through larger scale food growing, utilising unused land on estates, creating a supply of fresh produce for pantries or for sale.
The group felt that for the project to be successful and scalable it needs to build on assets or use resources that already exist for the most part in the same way as Holiday Kitchen built on our existing summer holiday activities. We need your help. Do you know of any projects that are similar to this? If so then we’d like to hear from you. Once the working group have decided on a project we’ll share more information and there’ll be a further opportunity to join the pilot. As usual please send your feedback to Julie.Ralph:boltonathome.org.uk
You can find out more about the work of GM Housing Providers by following them on Twitter @GMHousing Or visit the website for the latest news www.gmhousing.co.uk 2
Adactus Housing Group Miles Platting Community Grocer—Tackling poverty, loneliness and the UK’s surplus food mountain On 24th August, at 11am, the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester officially opened Miles Platting’s Community Grocer. Having previously launched at a soft opening on the 10th August, the Grocer is already proving to be a great success with its members. The Community Grocer is a food sharing membership scheme with residents paying £2.50 for a basket of food items worth around £12.50. The goods are supplied by FareShare, Tesco and M&S and additional items bought from the membership fees. Members can also enjoy getting together with friends in the social cafe area, which serves tea and toast to all. Based at Queensbury Court, the Community Grocer is coproduced by Adactus, Healthy Me Healthy Communities and run entirely by a group of passionate resident volunteers, keen to make a difference in their area. Maggie, a Miles Platting Community Grocer volunteer says “I love it here, I really enjoy being in the shop and serving people”. Rich Browning, Chief Executive of Healthy Me Healthy Communities, said “the first day was fantastic with so many people benefiting from the project, being able to access fresh and healthy food, and meet up with neighbours”. For further information, please contact: Rich Browning, Healthy Me Healthy Communities richbrowning@healthymehealthycommunities.co.uk or by phone on 07913 540680.
Holiday Fun and Food 2017—Tackling poverty and hunger in the school summer holidays This is the third year that Adactus Housing Group have ran the hugely successful activity projects within the school summer holidays. The aim is to combat poverty and hunger within the school break by providing free breakfasts and lunches to participating families whilst engaging parents and children in joint creative activities. The project is run over two
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separate one week sessions. The first ran at the start of the summer school break and the second at the end. Funded by Adactus Housing Group and organised in partnership with YPAC, Sure Start, Family Action, Fareshare and The Church of The Apostles, the project helps provide free food, fun and activities for families within the community. Activities included planting seeds and shrubs within a communal community garden, a make and taste session encouraging parents and children to make and eat foods together – with guide books to highlight the benefits of eating fruit and vegetables. There were also craft activities to encourage interaction and a fun day ran on the last session of each week to celebrate the children’s attendance to the project - where the children received a certificate of attendance. Feedback from previous years has proven that these projects provide much needed activities for children, combat the issue of hunger during school holidays and are very popular as per the rising number of attendant’s year on year. Going Digital Adactus Housing is challenging the barriers to digital engagement our tenants may face such as lack of access to the internet, not understanding the benefits of being digitally engaged, or not having the necessary skills and confidence. In order to engage and support our residents we have installed free communal Wi-Fi in all of our sheltered schemes. We aim to increase digital capability amongst our residents and communities, encouraging social mobility, a sense of purpose, and a strong feeling of belonging. Adactus has now started our digital training programme with our sheltered housing tenants. Enterprise & Funding officers were on hand during each session to offer help and advice. The digital training sessions have given our sheltered tenants the chance to learn how to use technology such as a tablets and smart phones. Many tenants brought their own mobile phones along to the session, and with our help they can now confidently send text messages to their family and friends, something many of us take for granted. Some tenants have family who live abroad; we were able to show them the benefits of using Skype, social networking sites and mobile video messaging to stay in touch with their family and friends.” Natasha Laws, Enterprise and Funding officer says “A common myth is that the older generation are not keen to participate in the world of technology, however, that couldn’t be further from the truth, the enthusiasm to learn and get online were the reasons our digital training sessions are a success.” 4
Bolton at Home Fair Press for Tenants Bolton at Home were one of the sponsors for this project where social housing tenants, frustrated by negative stereotypes, have inspired a unique guide for media workers called Fair Press for Tenants. It seeks to challenge misrepresentations by describing the impact of poor reporting and providing an alternative way to approach covering stories about social housing. The experiences of men and women who live in housing provided by social landlords across the UK were gathered in a survey and interviews by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). The guide is aimed at journalists, PR professionals, documentary makers and any media workers keen to hear the views of their readers, viewers and listeners on media representation of life in social housing. It is informed entirely by the ideas and words of people living in social housing. The guide is part of a wider Benefit to Society initiative which acknowledges that common misrepresentations of social housing tenants in the local and national media often include inaccurate perceptions such as tenants being associated with exploiting the benefit system and living in run down estates. These misrepresentations are damaging and drive the public to have a typically negative stereotypical view of social housing tenants. Benefit to Society also hopes to challenge those responsible for pushing the negative stereotypes, including government, the public and housing organisations themselves. See www.benefittosociety.co.uk for more information. The guide was launched on Thursday 14 September at the University of Salford. Three of the seventeen housing organisations sponsoring Benefit to Society are based in Greater Manchester; Bolton at Home, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group. Putting out poverty training Bolton at Home’s Learning and Development Team devised a 1 ½ hour training session for all employees across Bolton at Home to
Get staff thinking about poverty in Bolton/UK
Raise awareness of the poverty issues that our customers are facing
Think about how we at Bolton at Home can help
Give an overview of all the services that we offer or can signpost to
The sessions were interactive and included a shock factor activity to hammer home some stark facts and figures about poverty in Bolton and the UK. All employees were invited to attend regardless of whether or not they are customer facing, with a slightly different version of the training being delivered to our repair and maintenance teams. In each session there were up to 20 people attending and we had mixed groups of people from all across the business 5
In total 401 people have been trained over 25 sessions since 1st August. Another 69 people are booked onto the remaining 4 monthly mop up sessions. We will continue to deliver the session as part of Induction so that new starters are captured. Lots of verbal feedback was given by people saying that they really enjoyed the session and found it really informative. A common theme was that people did not realise there were so many services and so much support on offer. Here are some of the quotes from the feedback we gathered in some of the sessions: Fun way to learn
Interactive, informative, enjoyable
More fun than usual!
Really enjoyed the quiz
Informative and fun!
Not long winded & straight to the point
Enjoyable & informative
Good session
Fantastic advert for keeping warm for less!!
Very informative and well-paced session, well done
Good size groups, very informative, Just to say thank you for the above session very helpful especially top ten chart today. It was interesting, interactive and fun and it did make you think and I liked the format of the session. For further information please contact Andrea.Hamer-Chadwick@boltonathome.org.uk BL Packed Lunches Over the six week summer holiday period Urban Outreach made and distributed a staggering 45,268 packed lunches to children across all parts of Bolton. The lunches were distributed through a network of Children’s Centres and Community Buildings, including their own facility at the Hope Centre which is also home to the Johnson Fold Pantry. In August the Hope Centre had a visit from Jeremy Corbyn where he spoke to families who used the facility and to some of the children who were there to collect a packed lunch. The visit was covered in the local press and whilst it was good to have some publicity for both the Lunches project and the Pantry it was disappointing to see the article refer to them as a foodbank. 6
Equity Housing Group Training colleagues and customers in money management In August, we hosted a money management and budgeting course for customers, designed and delivered by our Money Advice Service. The course addressed many of the common issues faced in the challenge of managing household budgets and making decisions. The session focused on the fundamentals of budgeting, covering priority and non-priority expenditure. Customers received advice about brand switching and different products to help with reducing household bills. It provided the opportunity to consider real life examples and prepare financial statements so that each would learn how to find ways to save money and reduce their outgoings. To promote ethical banking options, customers were also given the opportunity to sign up for a Credit Union account to enable them to start saving on a regular basis and provided with tools to support savings goals. The course was designed as an interactive group session to help build a small network of people who could learn together and build each other’s confidence. The feedback from all participants was extremely positive and the training session can be adapted and run again in the future for different customer groups. Equity Foundation and Stockport County offer free summer sessions Equity Foundation and Stockport County Community Foundation have been working in partnership to run a whole host of football schools and programmes to provide children with a free and safe place to go in school holidays. Over the summer break, football sessions have been run in parks across nine different areas of Stockport and has been even more popular than expected with more than 550 attendees.
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The sessions have proven really popular with both the children taking part and their parents, one parent said: “The children always came out of the sessions with a smile, I also think the learning has been fantastic as my child will come home and tell me what he has learnt and how he is going to use this away from football”
Matthew Bailey Assistant Community Foundation Manager said: “We are really proud to be working in partnership with the Equity Foundation. This course has giving so many young people the opportunity to learn and play together. Without the funding we received these projects wouldn’t take part in Stockport so a big thank you from us.” Tenancy Support Success Equity’s Tenancy Support Service has been working with customer Kim since she moved into her property. Through the partnership Kim has been supported to apply for extra help following the birth of her two children and has benefited from warm home discounts, social fund loans, home safety equipment and support to tackle some outstanding debt. Kim’s learning difficulty means she often struggles with reading, writing and understanding. Her lack of confidence means that she finds it difficult to do things for the first time, so support from Tenancy Support Officer Becky helps her with correspondence, changes in circumstances and managing repairs. Kim really wants to be able to help her children achieve their potential and for this reason asked Becky to help her get onto a course to improve her skills. Through our links with local partners, we were able to find a suitable course run by Stockport Council’s adult learning programme and secure funding. The final barrier was childcare, so the Tenancy Support Officer helped to find a local childcare provider and to apply for financial support to cover the ongoing costs whilst she learns. Since starting her tenancy with us, Kim’s relationship with Equity has grown and grown, and she is now helping to provide valuable feedback at the Neighbourhoods Forum Events and help to shape future services. 8
First Choice Homes Oldham First Choice Homes Oldham is continuing to support the Greater Manchester antipoverty pledges within the communities of Oldham. Our new and existing projects are improving lives and the well-being of customers. We are also working with other Greater Manchester housing providers to meet these pledges. Directions employment service – The employment service, Directions, provided by First Choice Homes Oldham continues to go from strength to strength. The team of dedicated colleagues not only offer help and guidance for customers who are looking to find employment, but provide training programmes, work placements and confidence building. Since the service began in April 2016, the service has supported 287 customers with job seeking, and 152 customers into employment. In April 2017 First Choice Homes Oldham became a centre for delivering Open Awards accredited courses and began to deliver Entry Level 3 courses in customer service and business administration. This compliments work placements provided by the organisation, providing customers with the chance to gain a qualification. Many of the customers First Choice Homes work with have no recent qualifications and the courses provide a confidence boost as well as improve their CVs, which helps them find sustainable work.
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Credit Union Customers are being encouraged to join Oldham Credit Union in order to help manage money and get support with debt advice. First Choice Homes Oldham have been working closely with partner agencies (including Greater Manchester Police, Positive Steps and Oldham Council), over the past few months establishing the Holts and Lees community hub. The hub has been set up to bring together a wide range of public services under one roof, making them easier to access for customers living in the community. Through the hub a branch of the Oldham Credit Union has been set up to help members of the community manage their income. The Credit Union has drop-in sessions every week where advice and support is provided by First Choice Homes along with volunteers from the local community and Oldham Credit Union. In the lead up to the festive period a debt advice campaign will run, focussing on creating awareness around money lending and loan sharks before the Christmas, period when people can feel under pressure and fall victim. The community will be visited door to door to discuss any concerns they may have and to offer advice they may need on the issues. The campaign will also work with local schools. Activities and exercises will help create an understanding of money for local children and parents. 10
ForViva Fresh Living Fresh Living is an employment pathway where participants take up a three year apprenticeship to build new homes, paid at the Living Wage, and after year one are offered the tenancy of one of the new homes. For two years, half of the affordable rent is subsidised by ‘sweat equity’ - unpaid work hours banked by the apprentices. Fresh Living has a focus on getting people into work who, without intensive advice and support, would find this difficult to almost impossible to achieve on their own. In 2017, three apprentices completed Year Two of their apprenticeship and signed tenancies for new build homes they helped to build. Apprentices Lee and Mike were interviewed about their Fresh Living Lee’s story What difference has Fresh Living made to you? “Fresh Living has changed everything for me. I’m more confident and more advanced than I ever thought I would be. I enjoy my job and know what I want to do next. I want to set a good example to my son, Bobby-Lee, so that he doesn’t follow in the same footsteps as I did. The name of the programme reflects what it’s done for me - given me a fresh start in life.”
What difference has your new home made to you? “I’m living with my girlfriend and son. Our new home has given us independence, as well as the chance to live together as a family for the first time. I can now see my son every day whereas before I lived mainly at my parents’ house, only seeing my girlfriend and son at the weekend. My girlfriend lived in a flat before, so moving into the house with a garden means our son can now play outside. Although we have extra bills to pay, my apprenticeship means I can earn more money when I qualify as a bricklayer next year. In the meantime I get reduced rent by offsetting the hours I worked without pay in Year One, which I banked.” 11
Mike’s story What difference has Fresh Living made to you? “Fresh Living has given me the opportunity to get into a trade I can use in the future to earn money. It’s also given me the support to go in the right direction, something I may not have done without the programme. If it wasn’t for Fresh Living I wouldn’t have a job I liked and the opportunity to have my own home.” What difference has your new home made to you? “I sofa-surfed between family and friends and had house shares before moving into my new home. Now I can live with my girlfriend and we have our own space for the first time. It’s good to be able to park our car outside our own house and the street is nice and quiet. I loved the area where we lived before because it’s where our friends and family are, but we couldn’t miss out on the opportunity of living in a new home that was linked with my job.” Eat it Fresh Eat It Fresh is an educational cooking project which encourages adults and families to eat healthily and to experiment with foods they may not usually include in their diet, and is aimed to support a reduction in preventable deaths and increase life expectancy. It also explains how to eat well on a budget by meal planning and cooking meals using fresh ingredients, whilst avoiding unhealthy and expensive takeaways and ready meals. Some participants also attend to combat loneliness and isolation through being active during the day and interacting with other participants. During 2016-17, 24 classes in three cohorts took place in Salford. The 39 participants cooked foods they could also make at home, including curry and naan bread, sweet potato burger, chicken, bread, soup, cottage pie, fish cakes and lasagne. Neil’s story Neil was referred to Eat It Fresh to address the social isolation he was experiencing but also to improve his cooking skills as he was living on ready meals. Neil made new friends at the centre where the classes took place and went on to join the allotment group and the Tenants and Residents Association. Neil says “Eat It Fresh was really good for me. I now feel part of the community. It got me out of the house and it got me motivated. It’s a really good course and I would recommend it to anyone”. Neil now cooks for himself 12
on a regular basis and has improved his health, putting on weight as a result, something he wanted to do. To make his money and food go further, Neil has followed the advice of the classes by cooking in bulk to freeze for later. Feedback/outcomes from the project
11 (61%) participants said their cooking skills had improved ‘a lot’ and six (33%) said ‘a little’. One (6%) participant said they were ‘about the same’. Healthier diet / Wellbeing improved / Social inclusion “Changed eating habits, tried new food.” “Helped with my depression – got me out of the house.” “Nice to meet other people and enjoy eating together.” “Made me think about my diet.” Prevents food waste
The classes use unwanted, in date, food donated by retailers, which would otherwise go to landfill. ForViva Energy Advice The ForViva Energy Advice service is a support service where residents can receive help and support to reduce their energy and water costs either through switching energy supplier or tariff, applying for the Warm Homes rebate (£140 towards the cost of electricity for eligible households), registering on District Network Operator, Energy and Water suppliers Priority Service Register or help and support to use their heating system more efficiently. ForViva is also working with United Utilities to help their customers reduce their water costs by the installation of a water meter or applying for a more suitable water tariff. Carol’s Story Carol is a customer who lives alone in a 3 bedroom property. She is 55 years of age and has severe medical needs which limit her mobility. Carol was finding that her heating costs were starting to rise. Her neighbourhood officer mentioned the Energy Advice service asking if she would be interested. Her neighbourhood officer contacted the Energy Advice Officer (EAO) who arranged an appointment at her home. During the visit the EAO reviewed Carol’s energy bills. Her current annual cost for both gas and electric was a little over £1,000 with water costs approximately £480. As her current energy tariff was a standard variable Carol was keen to see if she could fix her tariff for a minimum of 12 months as energy prices are likely to rise. The energy review produced annual savings of £256 (25%) taking into account the Warm Homes rebate and Direct debit rate and with her energy costs fixed for over 24 months. Carol was also given information to think about on water meters. Should Carol move to a Water Meter and make the predicted water and energy savings she could save up to £500 per annum, one third of her current water and energy costs. In addition to the energy advice an application was made to register for the Npower Priority Services Register. This would afford Carol a greater level of support should either her gas or electricity fail or the external water mains burst or be turned off due to planned works. 13
Great Places Perfect partnerships brew up brilliance as our Barista Training helps many into work We recently partnered up with Salix Homes and Clarion Housing to deliver a course of barista training to customers, including lots of advice and information on finding a job using their new skills. One of our customers, Demi-Jay, was among the seven people that completed the course, learning how to make the perfect cup of coffee and then find work that demonstrates her new skills. Demi-Jay wants to be a midwife and is attending college in September but really wanted to learn a skill to help her gain employment for the summer and to fit around her studies over the next five years. Costa offered all those who completed the course group and individual interviews and on-the -job experience over the coming weeks. All who shine will be offered a job in local recruiting branches. If not successful for Costa, we will continue to engage with local employers and support all candidates into employment, providing help with their CVs, application and interviews. Clarion Housing offered free e-learning access to food hygiene and allergen courses to complete their training. Demi-Jay said to Nicolette Aydin, one of Employment and Skills Managers afterwards, “I can't thank you enough for this opportunity! It has been an amazing experience and lovely to learn so many new things. It was great to meet new people – everything was perfect, and I was really happy with the attention I was given on the day." Nicolette said: "The two days were amazing. The group was a mixture of ages ranging from 16 to 49, who all got on so well and helped each other. All are very keen to move into employment and excited about the opportunity given to be interviewed by Costa. "The partnership approach is excellent, giving us value for money but most importantly holistic support to people when and where they need it most. We are hoping Costa will find this approach beneficial too and will continue to work with us more in the future in offering real sustainable local careers to our tenants.�
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End Holiday Hunger Crossley Community Centre in Chadderton, in partnership with Oldham Foodbank, held healthy brunch clubs for the local children in the school holidays. They were fed a healthy meal and this was followed by fun activities. We linked into the END Holiday Hunger Campaign to highlight the issue of children going hungry in the school holidays as they cannot access school meals in the holidays and many parents find this a difficult time financially with many children going without a meal.
Social Value—The Toolbox Programme Toolbox was created to tackle the skills gap, particularly in construction, and to raise employment opportunities in our communities. This is managed by working closely with our Development Team and all contractors on our development programmes, ensuring we create the best-possible opportunities for our customers who want to work in construction. Where possible, we also work with our contractors to deliver traineeship schemes, opendoor days, work based training and work experience. From 2015-2017 Toolbox provided 30 apprenticeships and created seven other employment opportunities as part of our Development Programme. We've also partnered up for the 'Build Salford' project which delivered a 16-week training course and secured 10 apprenticeships, and have initiated several internal projects engaging colleagues and customers. 15
'Buttying' up to prove that there is such a thing as a free lunch! Great Places also manage properties outside of Greater Manchester and we wanted to share this great project with you from our Blackburn office. Over recent weeks many colleagues have been supporting the Summer Lunchbox Scheme in Blackburn with Darwen to provide free lunch bags a day to children who would normally receive free school meals. Holiday hunger is an increasing problem in our communities, with over 3 million children affected this year. More than 1,000 children have registered for the scheme, so it was very much needed! Our gas contractors, Proline, agreed to deliver the lunch bags to the eight Children’s Centres in Blackburn with Darwen acting as distribution centres as part of their social value offer, but the project needed 25-30 volunteers a day to make up the sandwiches throughout the summer holidays. Colleagues from our Blackburn office were quick to lend a hand, and they were supported by others from across the business. One of these volunteers was General Needs Tenancy Sustainment Service Manager Orlagh Robson, who found the experience rewarding. She said afterwards: "Everyone that joined me really enjoyed getting involved; it's so rewarding to be able to help the young community in this way. It was a brilliant initiative and we were proud to support it!"
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Guinness Partnership Guinness Partnership committed £2000 to Big Life children’s and Family Division towards a Hulme play scheme which provided positive activities for children aged 5 to 11 over the summer holidays. Other funders included Northwards, Great Places and Adactus housing associations. The project was supported by 8 volunteers from the local area who received training and support. The play scheme was open to all local children aged 5 – 11+ years and took place between Monday 21st August and Friday 25th August. The aim was to create a safe play space for local children and encourage positive engagement with local residents. It utilised the school hall and adjoining car park which allowed children to access the scheme via the gates on the adjoining field. It was led by a Development Manager and an experienced play worker who were supported by a team of 8 local volunteers. Four of the volunteers were young people between 15 and 18. One regularly used the play scheme when she was younger and now contributes her skills as a sports coach. Another young volunteer wanted to gain work experience to support her personal development. Another was a local university student who wanted to contribute to the local community; other volunteers were local parents. In addition to the onsite play activities the children also enjoyed a fun day at Bignor Street Park to meet Ranger Rob and his exotic animals courtesy of our local Housing Associations. The children were able to hold some of the animals and ask questions about how to care for them. The group linked up with Longsight and Cheetham play schemes for a lovely day on Ainsdale Beach. For many of the children this was their first visit to the ‘ocean’. There were squeals of delight when they paddled in the sea and jumped over the giant waves. The play scheme ended with a family trip to Flamingo Land – tickets and travel were subsidised by donations and all volunteers received a free ticket as a thank you for all their hard work. A coach took 20 families with a total of 43 children to the theme park.
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Enterprise This year the scheme introduced the concept of enterprise, with three of the older children getting involved. The group invested an initial outlay in stock and the children then traded. One had an initial investment of £80 in pocket money toys and had a final turnover over of £230 with a clear profit of £70. On the final day he came to hand over his profit and was delighted to learn it was his to keep as he had earned it. He is now looking to reinvest his profit and set up a mini shop outside his house. Another invested in ice-pops; his initial investment was £5 and turned over £62 with a final net profit of £38. Again, he is going to keep trading on his estate. Holiday hunger As in previous years, the scheme worked with FareShare and arranged for a weekly delivery of food that was destined for land fill. This meant they were able to offer healthy snacks at the sessions and also offered other local children not attending the scheme free fruit and snacks. The children were encouraged to prepare and serve the snacks. Capacity Having planned to offer two sessions per day catering for 24 children, capacity was revised due to the high level of demand. Sessions averaged 30 children and this was exceeded on some days due to pre-arranged trips. Working with Big Chance volunteers, the scheme was able to increase staff/volunteer ratios to cater for the highest demand the play scheme has experienced in the 8 years it has been running. 99 local children aged 5 to 15 years attended the play scheme with slightly higher number of girls than boys. Over 50% of the children attending were over 10 years old. This is unusual for a play scheme and has highlighted a need for activities for the older age group. The scheme was also able to offer support to for children with ADHD. Diversity The play scheme welcomed children from many cultures and there was a notable rise in the number of Polish children attending. All the volunteers have gone on to further training, mainly in teaching or support roles. Children’s feedback The children developed the feedback form and interviewed each other. They asked 20 children for feedback: On a scale of 1 -10, how much did you enjoy the play scheme? 96 % gave the play scheme a 10.
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Irwell Valley HA Irwell Valley Adamas Reducing Poverty Through Apprenticeships Irwell Valley Adamas is delighted that our apprentice, Charlotte Howarth-Earlam has been shortlisted for the Women in Housing Best Apprentice/Trainee Award. Charlotte is 21 years old and joined Irwell Valley Adamas (the in-house repairs and maintenance company) in December 2015 after gaining a Diploma in Site Carpentry from her local Skill Centre, Skills Solution. During the recruitment process Charlotte’s aptitude stood out, and Skills Solution put her forward for an interview. She immediately impressed with her ‘can do’ attitude, confidence and interpersonal skills and was offered an apprenticeship. Charlotte would never describe herself as a trailblazer – but she is, there is no doubt that Charlotte is breaking the mould as while women make up most of the workforce in housing, they are still under-represented in the construction industry. After landing the role of apprentice joiner at Irwell Valley Adamas, Charlotte has continuously strived to learn more by always looks for an opportunity to work alongside other operatives in different trades - roofers, electricians, plasterers and plumbers - to widen her skill set still further. It’s because of her proactive approach that we involved Charlotte in the recruitment of four additional apprentices this year, increasing our apprenticeships from two to six. Irwell Valley Adamas believes that apprentices are excellent role models for other young people in our neighbourhoods strengthening of families and the wider community. Of our four recruits this year, two live in Irwell Valley homes, helping us tackle the wider issues of poverty and unemployment in our neighbourhoods. All our young people earn while they study and are more likely to sustain long-term employment. The four new apprentices will be working towards qualifications and gaining on the job experience as multi-trade operatives, electricians and gas engineers. The Awards Ceremony takes place on the 2nd November 2017, so we’ve got all our fingers crossed for Charlotte.
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Irwell Valley supporting the Starts at Home Campaign Together with registered provides across Greater Manchester, Irwell Valley is supporting the National Housing Federation’s “Starts At Home” campaign. The campaign aims to raise awareness amongst MPs and the Government about the vital role played by supported and sheltered housing in supporting some of our most vulnerable citizens and for the need for a settled and fair funding system to support it. It is vital that the sector receives the funding it needs to provide these services, which tackle homelessness and poverty, minimise the burden on the NHS and maintain and develop people’s independence. In September Irwell Valley was delighted to welcome four of our local MPs to our schemes in support of the Starts At Home campaign. Jeff Smith, Withington visited Morris Court, our service for people with mental health needs in Fallowfield; Mike Kane, Wythenshawe & Sale East, visited our dementia service, Shore Green; Barbara Keeley, Worsley & Eccles South visited our sheltered housing scheme, Rydal House in Walkden; and Kate Green, Stretford & Urmston, came to Northleigh House in Old Trafford. It is great to get the support of our MPs over this matter; we hope that their engagement and involvement will ensure that the Government understands how important supported housing both to service users and to our wider communities.
Proactive Student supported by Irwell Valley Adamas Irwell Valley Adamas was approached by student Kirsty Woodward who is currently studying for gas qualifications at college. Kirsty needed the on-the-job experience which is a requirement to achieve the qualification but could not get this experience in her current role. As Irwell Valley is committed to supporting education and employment opportunities we were happy to help Kirsty to gain the experience she needed. Kirsty started her learning journey with the desire of learning how to fix the plumbing in her house. She set out by studying for her Diploma in Plumbing and Heating two nights a week for 12 months in 2014. The mum of 15-month-old Luca previously worked at Sodexo (who provide services for Central Manchester Hospitals) initially in HR before gaining a mechanical apprenticeship with them in 2015. 20
Working with our gas engineers Kirsty aims to complete the portfolio of evidence needed before she attends her gas assessments to become a fully qualified gas engineer. In 12 months Kirsty hopes to have completed her NVQ L3 in Plumbing and Heating and gained her gas ACS qualifications to enable her to become Gas Safe registered and carry out gas work. Supporting residents of Greater Manchester to overcome barriers to skills development, employment, training and education is high on the agenda for Irwell Valley Adamas. In addition to supporting with opportunities for residents to gain experience we regularly providing education, training and back to work grants. The aim of the grant is to remove barriers that might prevent Irwell Valley residents from taking up opportunities in employment or training, grants have been awarded for travel expenses, child care and equipment. Sunshine Café tackling food poverty Irwell Valley were helping tackle food poverty this summer with a ‘Munch Club’ delivered from the Sunshine Café in Sale West. The club was delivered in partnership with the Urban Trust for around three weeks aimed at families with a limited income with children aged between 7-10. Healthy food and activities were provided and on average 32 children attended each day. The Sunshine Café is a volunteer led initiative supported by Irwell Valley to offer a place where residents in Sale West can come together and enjoy healthy meals at affordable prices. The most recent volunteer is a resident being supported by Irwell Valley to gain experience to support his applications for employment. Irwell Valley supporting Wood Street Mission Irwell Valley’s Income Management Team often engage with customers who have to choose between buying school uniform and paying the rent in the lead-up to the new school year. Throughout the year we try to prevent this problem by encouraging customers to save a little each week with Manchester Credit Union so that they have the money to buy school uniform, and not have to go into rent arrears or turn to the local loan shark. However, not everyone has even a little extra cash each week to do this. This year we have been promoting Wood Street Mission’s Smart Start scheme to our customers who are struggling to buy uniform. To give something back to Wood Street Mission, the staff at Irwell Valley generously donated items of uniform, PE kit, stationary and lunch bags to help kids across Manchester and Salford get back to school and be the best that they can be.
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New Charter The Community Development Team carried out a loan shark awareness project with the residents of Bury which helped to promote examples of good lending and bad lending among BME tenants of all ages over a six week period. Attendees got involved in creating 3 vision boards to illustrate what the most likely reasons would be for borrowing from a loan shark, what would be the possible consequences of borrowing and what measures could be taken to avoid the need of borrowing.
As part of the project, it was relayed to the attendees that anyone can become a victim of a loan shark, and these criminals usually appear friendly at first but their behaviour soon changes once monies are owed. Victims are often left in the dark as to how much they owe or the interest they’re being charged on the loan as often no paperwork is given. The intention from the completion of this project is that members of the Bury community will make a contribution to making a difference and tackling this crime in their community. The training sessions taught tenants about the importance of budgeting and prioritising. The purpose was to highlight the dangers of getting involved with a loan shark, general borrowing and the dangers of entering into a “kamittee” to hopefully raise awareness to help prevent people from falling victims in the future. The concept of Pakistani kamitee is widely understood by most Pakistani’s in the UK, and this informal money-lending method is popular for saving and lending. Here is how it works: A group of women plan to contribute a certain amount every month to build a pool of money. One person per month is paid the amount collected every month. The time period for the kamittee is the same as the number of women in the group.
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This is an easy method to gain quick money. However, the members in the kamittee have to be trustworthy. There is no legally binding contract and therefore no security if the member of the group is not repaid by the owner of the kamittee or vice versa if the member fails to pay the owner.
Supporting a resilient workforce New Charter Group is continuing their programme of resilience training for front line workers aimed at supporting them in responding positively to the challenges they face on a day to day basis and managing their resilience to stress. This is not the first time that New Charter have delivered resilience training, two years earlier, all front line workers had received similar training, but after recent feedback around the renewed difficulties their people were experiencing, responded quickly with an interactive one day programme. In designing the training, front line workers were asked to help form the content of the training, so that the programme was a relevant as possible to all participants. The aim of the training is to help their front line workers to recognise the various physical, emotional and psychological signs of stress, choose a more positive stress mind set and improve their mental strength, performance and well-being. It is hoped that with improved skills and awareness front line workers will be better equipped to support customers dealing with the impact and challenges of welfare reform. By the end of the programme 440 staff members will have undertaken the training. Tameside Job’s Fair 2017 On 27th September over 600 Tameside residents visited New Charter Homes Head Office seeking paid employment, training, careers advice and support. This was the second time this year we have hosted the Tameside Job’s Fair. Back in January over 300 attended. The 25 exhibitors invited who attended included local employers IKEA, Stagecoach and G4S and all engaged positively with residents discussing current job opportunities, information and advice on how they recruit staff and what skills and qualities they are looking for when recruiting. 23
The New Charter Community Development Team took the details of over 20 residents interested in gaining a work experience available at New Charter Homes and 2nd Generation Furnishings within the Skills for Employment programme we deliver including cleaning, caretaking, business administration, retail and landscape gardening opportunities. In addition we promoted our weekly work club support which is available in 3 areas of Tameside and continues to support people on their journey into sustainable paid employment, training and volunteering. Visitor’s feedback: “I found a lot of jobs that I am interested in and discovered I could work from home from a few employers” “Lots of employers here were great, staff on stands were open, approachable and friendly” “Looking forward to securing a voluntary placement at New Charter Homes to get some work experience” Exhibitor’s feedback: “Firstly I think a preverbal pat on the back for all those concerned in the arranging of The Tameside Jobs Fair, it was certainly beneficial to ourselves as we had applications for over 30 personnel to which 5 have already been given dates for next week to be interviewed and included on our data base”. Ken Larby Director of Smartway Cleaning Services Limited—“Great from employer perspective. Great variety of interested candidates. Please can we return next time”. Ben – Home fundraising—This successful event was organised by The New Charter Homes Community Development team in partnership with teams from Job Centre Plus (DWP) and Tameside MBC Employment and Skills. If you would like more information about our Employment and Skills and Enterprise partnerships or our Great Opportunities programme please contact John McGlynn from The Community Development Team Email john.mcglynn@newcharter.co.uk Tel 0161 331 2000.
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One Manchester Financial Inclusion Conference for the city of Manchester On Wednesday 4 October, One Manchester supported by Manchester City Council hosted the fifth Financial Inclusion Conference for the city, welcoming speakers, delegates and exhibitors from a range of sectors and encouraging some lively debate. The newly appointed chief executive of Manchester City Council, Joanne Roney OBE, opened the keynote speeches sharing her hopes for the city and her thoughts on how Manchester’s refreshed Family Poverty Strategy can help tackle some of the city’s inequalities saying, “Unless you support everyone so that we all have the same opportunities, you will have some people slipping through the cracks.” Other keynote speakers included: Dave Power group chief executive at One Manchester, John Ryan, HUB manager at Shelter Greater Manchester, Tim Haworth, district manager for Greater Manchester at the Department for Work and Pensions, Caroline Hamilton from the Money Advice Service and Jeff Mitchell, founder and director of Clean Slate Training & Employment and the Social Publishing Project, which publishes the ‘Quids In’ magazine. The workshops also got everyone talking and learning from each other, covering topics such as: the roll-out of Universal Credit in Greater Manchester ahead of the full service roll-out in the city, details of a digital financial capability tool and how we can improve financial resilience in a city with changing tenure types, so that housing providers have the necessary skills and knowledge around mortgage debt and more. Delegates even had the chance to get a bit arty as the Contact Theatre’s Creative Experts worked with Manchester City Council to deliver an interactive ‘mapping Manchester’ workshop, which certainly helped bring the Family Poverty Strategy to life. Dave Power, group chief executive at One Manchester said: “It was great to have such a diverse range of organisations coming together and sharing knowledge and good practice. We were also really proud to launch the Financial Inclusion Conference Awards and it was fantastic to see individuals and organisations getting recognition for the work they are doing which is making a real difference. There was some lively debate throughout the day which is what we wanted but there was also recognition of the challenges within each sector and an overwhelming commitment to working together to improve the lives of Manchester residents which is what the day was all about. My thanks go to our One Money team and in particular, Vicky Cordingley, for devising such an interesting and thought-provoking conference agenda.” As Joanne Roney OBE concluded: “When we pull together as a city, we are unbeatable.”
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Onward Homes Free training for residents Hattersley and Mottram residents are set to benefit from a suite of new skills enhancing courses, thanks to a new group partnership. Newly-appointed Work and Skills Coach, Matthew Lee, will be based at the Hub in Hattersley and will be coordinating sessions such as CV writing, interview techniques and workshop-based courses. The new role has been funded by Peak Valley Housing Association, in partnership with Tameside Borough Council, Hattersley Forum and Barratts. All classes are free of charge to residents, and levels will range from entry through to intermediate. Work and Skills Coach Matthew Lee, said: ‘It’s a pleasure to be supporting the residents of the Hattersley and Mottram in their individual endeavours. Whether you’re looking for work, want to learn a new skill or brush up your CV, please get in touch and let us know what you need.’
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Salix Homes Community cash up for grabs in Salford A cash boost is up for grabs for community projects in Salford. Housing association Salix Homes has launched its brand new community funding programme – Springboard – offering cash injections to much needed local groups and initiatives. As part of Salix Homes’ ‘Love Your Neighbourhood’ initiative, the housing provider, which owns more than 8,300 properties in central Salford and Swinton, has earmarked a funding pot to be split across its neighbourhoods and local youth projects in the area. The money can be used for projects that will boost community spirit, improve the environment, reduce isolation and promote health and wellbeing. Warren Carlon, service director for communities at Salix Homes, said: “In a time of austerity and budget cuts, Salix Homes is very proud to be able to offer the Springboard fund, which could provide a lifeline for local groups and projects in our communities. “Whether you’re a community group struggling for funding or an individual with a great idea to improve your neighbourhood, I’d urge you to apply to the Springboard fund. “We want to help local people and groups to continue the excellent work they do to strengthen the sense of community in Salford and encourage people to love their neighbourhood.” Grant applications under £1,000 will be approved by Salix Homes’ neighbourhood teams, and any bids over £1,000 will be approved by the housing association’s Customer Excellence Panel. You can apply online at www.salixhomes.org or contact the neighbourhood teams for an application form on 0800 218 2000 or email enquiries@salixhomes.org Salix Homes calls for more women in construction as it launches apprentice recruitment drive A housing association and its partner contractors have launched an apprentice recruitment drive in Salford – and are calling for more women to consider a career in construction. Salix Homes is inviting applications, both male and female, for its latest intake of apprentices to work on its multi-million pound investment programme. The housing association has appointed its five principal contractors to deliver its £38million improvement scheme to 2,900 homes across the city over the next three years. For every £1million invested, Salix Homes and its contractors have committed to creating two apprenticeship positions for local people, as part of the housing associations ‘Earn as You Learn’ initiative. Sue Sutton, executive director of operations at Salix Homes, said: “We are very proud to work alongside our partner contractors to provide these training and employment 27
opportunities for local people to help them create a better life for themselves. “We’ve had some tremendous success stories through our apprenticeship programmes both male and female, so we believe it is important to remember construction in the housing sector is open to all and we want to see more women learning the tools of the trade. “Only 14% of the workforce in the construction industry is female, but we believe it’s time for a change and women should be able to fulfil their potential and thrive in careers, such as plastering and joinery, that have previously been dominated by men. “Apprentices represent the future of the sector and our Earn as Your Learn initiative provides a fantastic opportunity for young people, both men and women, to gain valuable skills, experience and qualifications while still taking home a wage.” The two and three year apprenticeships are run in conjunction with procurement consortium Procure Plus and include positions in a number of principal trades, including plastering, gas engineering and site logistics. Apprentices will also work towards an NVQ Level 2 and Level 3 qualification. The apprentices will work alongside contractors Emanuel Whittaker, Sure, The Casey Group and A Connolly Ltd; as well as with Salix Homes’ own Repairs and Maintenance Team. In the past two years, Salix Homes has recruited 45 apprentices to work across the organisation and with its partner contractors. Jake Rawlinson, 22, from Swinton, is a joiner and carpentry apprentice with Salix Homes contractor Emanuel Whittaker and says he’d definitely recommend going down the apprenticeship route. He said: “My father and uncle are in the building industry, and my interest grew after going out with them and seeing what happened. I also saw the potential to work and possibly progress to other things such as site management. “I was fortunate enough to be given a great opportunity with Salix Homes and Emanuel Whittaker to do an apprenticeship which I really enjoy - working and being taught at the same time. I would encourage anyone who is given a similar opportunity to take it up.” To find out more about the apprenticeship opportunities available with Salix Homes contact Jackie Crook on 0161 779 8966 or email jackie.crook@salixhomes.org.
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Six Town Housing Food Bank set up in Bury following public vote A Tenant and Resident Association (TRA) based in a deprived Bury neighbourhood won £1,000 to run a food bank after taking part in a competitive bidding event run by Bury Council. According to the DCLG’s index of multiple deprivation, the Chesham estate is in an area that is in the top 10% nationwide. TRA volunteers, based at Chesham Fold Community Centre, were hearing more and more reports of individuals and families who were unable to meet their financial commitments, and therefore missing meals to try to feed their children. Calls and visits to the centre also began to increase from people affected by issues related to the implementation of Universal Credit and Single Occupancy, and redundancy. TRA members knew they needed to do something to help and discussed running a food bank, but it was not something they could strictly fund themselves as volunteers. A member of staff from Six Town Housing – the arm’s-length company which manages the homes on behalf of Bury Council - recommended a competitive bidding event called ‘The Pitch’ to the TRA. The Pitch, which is run by the council, invites local groups to put their case for funding to the public, who then vote for their favourite projects. Chesham Fold TRA successfully bid for funding via The Pitch in July, which has enabled them to run a foodbank in partnership with the charity Caritas, who provide their own team of volunteers to open up the bank and source food donations. The food bank is now offering food parcels to some of the most vulnerable people in Chesham at the Community Centre every Thursday. Sister Joan from Caritas, who is co-ordinating the service in Chesham, said: "Our Caritas volunteers are looking forward to welcoming the people of Chesham. The food bank is open every Thursday from 10am to 11.30am, including Christmas week. On arrival there is the opportunity of tea or coffee and a chat – with any details we take being held in the strictest confidence - and we also have toys to occupy any young visitors." Councillor Tamoor Tariq, Bury Council’s cabinet member for communities and safer neighbourhoods, said: “Our Pitch events have proved hugely popular, giving local groups an opportunity to showcase the superb ideas they have to improve their own communities, and giving the public a chance to vote for the projects they most want. “There can hardly be anything more important than providing food to people in financial hardship, and my congratulations go to Chesham TRA for their hard work in bringing this project to fruition.” Community groups in Bury can keep up to date on further Community Fund opportunities via www.theburydirectory.co.uk/ funding. 29
Stockport Homes Supporting Women into Business Stockport Homes working with the Enterprise Bridge are looking to support over 20 women into business. With very limited self-employment support available in Stockport, open days were held over the summer to understand the interest from women in the local community for help in setting up their own businesses. Due to phenomenal interest a 12 week course has been established which aims to: Help women with a great business idea get started, Provide a little extra support to help them get their plans off the ground Build confidence and offer an opportunity to meet other like-minded women entrepreneurs. Women attending had wide ranging business ideas including setting up a florists, clothes companies, ethical salons, photography companies and food businesses.
Stockport Homes & Wonderful Things holiday provision Stockport Homes is working with Rossendale-based social enterprise ‘Wonderful Things’ and All Saints Primary School, Heaton Norris to deliver five full days of holiday activities during October 2017 half term for only £10 per child. Wonderful Things provides innovative extra-curricular skills based activities to primary aged children during school holidays to inspire the children and feed into their social and academic attainment, as well as provide affordable childcare for working families. In addition, older children who are either pupils who have recently started secondary school or 30
year 6 pupils at the school will be recruited as Youth Volunteers. They will join the Wonderful Things programme of personal development and support, helping at the sessions and taking part in additional activities to develop their skills and confidence. For the pilot, Stockport Homes will fund the entire cost of Wonderful Things involvement, the daily charge for 30 children to attend and publicity. The school will fund the cost of a Teaching Assistant being present every day. Tesco are donating free packed lunches every day and even a member of their staff to make the sandwiches! A token charge of £2 per day (£10 for the week) will be made for each child to attend. Consultation with All Saints parents during July showed strong support (50 responses, all positive) and the school will identify 30 children from these responses who should be offered places due to their circumstances and the likelihood of them deriving particular benefit from the sessions. Assuming the pilot is a success, we will be looking to secure partial external funding and sponsorship to extend the sessions to every school holiday. We are working with the Welsh Local Government Association and Cardiff University to develop an evaluation tool based on the work they have done with their national ’Food & Fun’ programme. This will measure the impact of the sessions on the educational attainment, development and wellbeing of those children who take part as a longitudinal study with the school. For more information, please contact Tanya King, Social Inclusion Manager at Stockport Homes on 0161 474 2887 or tanya.king@stockporthomes.org. Summer activities The Customer and Community Engagement Team have worked in partnership with a wide range of partners including the Children’s Centres, Life Leisure, Stockport County , Equity and SAVY (Stockport Action for Voluntary Youth) to ‘Bridge the Holiday Gap’ for families and young people in priority areas this summer. The programme aimed to alleviate the stress on families during the long school holidays through providing educational activities that promote and support healthy eating and grassroots sports. 46 families in Brinnington and Adswood participated in Holiday Kitchen. Children and parents enjoyed healthy cooking sessions, outdoor play, games, planting and a trip away twice a week during the holidays. 72 young people received sports coaching from Stockport County with a further 42 outreach football sessions delivered to 118 children in the community. 223 young people aged 11 years and over participated in a programme aimed to tackle hunger in the holidays, over 75% were in receipt of free school meals. Young people engaged in ‘dj-ing’, sports, healthy cooking and crafts across the Borough. 397 hot meals were cooked by the young people. Young people said that all the activities gave them something to do in the holidays when they were often bored and hungry. Families said it helped them to have fun together in the holidays. 31
Trafford Housing Trust Project 35 In April 2019, all social housing tenancies that started after April 2016 will be subject to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cap. The cap limits the amount of benefit that will be paid towards housing costs and is particularly restrictive to certain groups. Single people under the age of 35, without children, will only be entitled to between £57 and £67 a week for housing dependent on which area of Trafford they live in. In most cases they will only be entitled to minimal benefits as well, meaning that they will be unable to meet any shortfall in rent. This will seriously affect their ability to access housing at all, due the restrictive nature of the amounts of benefits available to them. In response to this change, Trafford Housing Trust (THT) have been running a project aimed at developing a product that will be affordable to potential customers affected by these changes. The project is testing shared accommodation by converting existing stock into shared accommodation with individual tenancies. The individual tenancies are not furnished but do include carpets and blinds and the communal spaces are furnished along with white goods in the kitchen. There are a number of property options being tested to find the most effective mix of customers and number of tenancies in a property. In addition, the viability of these tenancies is being carefully monitored and conversions are rolling out slowly with special focus on tenant wellbeing and community impact. THT went live at the beginning of Sept. when 3 young people moved into a three bedroom house from a homeless hostel. We are also in the process of adapting a 2 bed flat and are working to identify other properties that could be used in this project. It is important that we try different types and sizes of property to identify which works best. Mike Corfield, Assistant Director, Trafford Housing Trust said “The challenges presented to young people who rely on housing benefit in accessing affordable housing are significant and in our view requires an imaginative response from housing providers. The test initiative the Trust has set up may well reveal difficulties and require more development of the model as we learn how best to support young people in their new home. However difficult this challenge is, we remain committed to developing housing solutions for everyone and are proud that we are not pursuing policies designed to exclude those in most need.”
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Over 50s club, Be Social comes to Urmston & Stretford Earlier this year we announced the launch of Be Social, our fun and welcoming club for people over 50 in Trafford to be active, make friends and enjoy life. The club offers activities and events chosen with members, such as day trips, exercise and craft classes, lunches and afternoon teas and trips to the theatre or cinema, as well as exclusive discounts with local businesses. Since then Be Social has grown in popularity and strengthened its offer across Trafford, with an event in August to mark its expansion in Stretford and Urmston. A summer party was held at the Trust’s newly re-furbished sheltered scheme Ormeston Lodge in Urmston to introduce Be Social to residents and the local community during an afternoon of entertainment. Member, Puri Buron (age 71) says: “Be Social makes me feel alive again, it’s lifted me up and made me want to do things. Since I joined I can tell such a difference, I didn’t know I was depressed but now I feel so much better and my attitude to life has changed. My confidence has been boosted and I feel psychically and psychologically better.” As well as Be Social, our Independent Living service, TrustCare offers a range of social opportunities to help people to feel healthier, happier and more independent, such as support to get out and about and activities in our sheltered and extra care schemes.
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Wythenshawe Community Housing Group WCHG Supports MEA Students with Bursaries Chair of the WCHG Board, Bishop of Manchester, The Right Revd Dr David Walker visited the Manchester Enterprise Academy (MEA) to meet students who will benefit from a bursary donation from Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG). The bursary donation will support 14 students in their first year of university, which will leave a lasting legacy for the residents and community of Wythenshawe. The Bishop of Manchester said, “WCHG’s commitment to supporting the youth of Wythenshawe is an investment in the future of the community and the MEA are doing a fantastic job to support young people to both hold and reach their ambitions. I was delighted to meet the students and hear first-hand the difference these bursaries will make to their lives. Education really matters to the life chances of young people growing up in Wythenshawe and here we will do what we can to help support this. “ James Eldon Principal of the Manchester Enterprise Academy said, “I would personally like to thank Bishop David as Chair of the WCHG Board for all the support MEA is given by Wythenshawe Community Housing Group. It’s been another fantastic year for the MEA and we are looking forward to opening our new building, new school and the start of the new term. It’s critical we continue to work hard together with WCHG to support the continued development of Wythenshawe.” Susan Richardson, Executive Director of Resources at WCHG said, “The MEA is doing fantastic work in Wythenshawe and I’m delighted the Housing Group can support these students on their journey into higher education. Our vision is to create a community where people choose to live and work and through our partnership work with the MEA it helps us achieve that. Congratulations to all the students and best of luck for the future.”
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Wythenshawe Youth Help Organise Norbrook Fun Day Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG) helped support a group of local young people to deliver their very own unique event at the Norbrook Youth Club this summer. A group of 5 young people from the Wythenshawe Youth Forum aged between 11 and 14 pitched for funding from the Wythy Tree Youth Bank in May and were awarded £700 to hold an event at the youth club in Northern Moor. They went on to plan every aspect of a fun day at the centre, from managing the budget to organising various different activities and the layout of the day. The Youth Forum is a group of young people interested in community change and is led by WCHG’s youth team. The Youth Forum is currently delivering a campaign called the ‘Summer of Change’ which is centred on raising funds for the Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham’s homelessness fund. 13 young volunteers took part in the day, giving up 63 hours of their time and through the event many expressed an interest in joining the Youth Forum in the future. Youth Forum member Shannon Stone said, “As someone that volunteers at Norbrook, it was really exhilarating to see the young people give something back to the club to help it grow in the future”. Executive Director of Housing at WCHG Jacque Allen said, “I was really impressed by the commitment and dedication of the Young People involved in this project when I attended the Youth Bank event in May and I’m delighted to hear that the event was such a big success. We will continue to help support and mentor these young people to develop their skills and experience and work together to make Wythenshawe a better place to live and work.” Are you interested in joining the Youth Forum? We are always on the lookout for new members who want to make a difference in their community. Please express interest by email: youthinvolvement@wchg.org.uk
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Other stories you may be interested in… Greater Manchester Poverty Action Back in January GMPA launched their Emergency Food Providers map, a Google map showing the location of all the foodbanks, pay-as-you-feel cafés, food clubs and pantries that they could find. They’ve now produced a second map which shows ‘Household items and repairs’ and includes organisations that provide reconditioned, refurbished and repaired furniture, white goods and smaller electrical items for a fraction of high street costs, some that are even able to offer a limited number of these items free of charge. It includes the local Freecycle groups that simply advertise everything, including occasionally the kitchen sink, that is available for free from the current owners who no longer need the item. Also shown are a few organisations that can provide some practical support in the home for those on lowincomes, the elderly and the disabled. They would welcome your help improving this map. Who have they missed off? Are the details they’ve gleaned completely accurate? Please email them with any additions and corrections. The more accurate it is, the more useful it will be.
Greater Manchester Living Wage Campaign Living Wage Week will take place during 5th to the 12th November and the GM Living Wage Campaign will be supporting the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Development of a Good Employment Charter. They will be doing that through three events that are planned for during Living Wage Week. The events will support the GM Combined Authority led public engagement process for the proposed GM Good Employment Charter.
Tuesday November 7th 0800-1000: Hosted by Darren Knight, Chief Officer, Bolton CVS. Venue: Bolton Hub, Bold St, Bolton BL1 1LS. Thursday November 9th 0800-1000 Hosted by Ben Gilchrist, Deputy Chief Executive Action Together, Tameside. Venue: First Choice Homes Oldham First Place, 22 Union Street, Oldham. OL1 1BE. Friday 10th November 1030-1300 (this agenda also includes an additional Living Wage item) Hosted by Alison Page Chief Executive Salford CVS. Venue: The Angel Centre (home of Social adVentures) 1 St Philip's Pl, Salford M3 6FA.
The Purpose of the Public Engagement Events A GM-wide Charter will outline good employment practices and recognise employers that adopt them. Your input will help us shape a Charter that makes a positive difference to local people and employers.
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There is a range of opinion as to how a Charter should be developed and monitored. There are many questions to be addressed and probably many more still to be raised. This event will be an opportunity to hear in-depth about the plans and to feed in your thoughts and your hopes for the Charter. Topics to be discussed include: The good employment practices to be featured in the Charter. Levers and incentives for changing business practice and raising employment standards. How employers should be engaged and supported to join the Charter. What resourcing, promotion and monitoring the Charter will require. For more information, please see Good Jobs in Greater Manchester: the role of employment charters. Each Event will be run as a World Café. We hope you can join us and add your thoughts, suggestions and questions to the creation of a GM Good Employment Charter. Please contact the event host to let them know you will be attending, or the GM Living Wage Coordinator, Lynn Sbaih via 07948549485 or Lynn.Sbaih@gmlivingwage.org
FareShare Greater Manchester: The Year So Far FareShare Greater Manchester redistributes surplus food to charities, community organisations, schools, cooking projects and pantries that are using the social power of food to help people in poverty, and social isolation. Based on New Smithfield Market in Openshaw, and run by EMERGE, FareShare GM is part of a 21 depot ‘FareShare Network’ that works across the UK, and handles 4% of the UK’s edible food surpluses. In 2016, 1.9 million meal portions were distributed across the region with approximately 20,000 people per week accessing FareShare foods. 2017 is proving to be FareShare GM’s busiest and most challenging year since opening in 2008. In the last 6 months, 405 tonnes of food have been distributed to over 200 FareShare Community Food Members. More organisations in the ‘Northern Boroughs’ have joined up along with pantries, projects working with older people, and some responding to children’s hunger in the main school holidays. One of the biggest challenges the FareShare team faces is managing the changing nature of the food donations being received. In particular, far less tinned and long-life foods have been donated, and the shelf life of chilled foods is much less than in previous years. This reflects the positive changing culture in the food sector in relation to the management of surpluses. On the other hand, more frozen foods are being offered on a weekly basis, and more food is arriving on Fridays with weekend dates. 37
The FareShare membership is responding by increasing flexibility, and adapting to what’s on offer by purchasing new equipment, moving away from long life only food projects, and considering weekend working. A great example of this is the new pantry at Emmaus Salford, opening on a Sunday as well as during the week. Behind the scenes, FareShare UK is working hard to secure more donations of food from a sector that can also sell surpluses to the highest bidder. Working in full compliance with professional food safety regulations, FareShare is keen to hear from more food companies in the region. Potential donors can contact Miranda Kaunang, Development Manager at FareShare GM: 0161 223 8200 ex 117 or message via @FareShareGtrM Volunteers are key to so much of the food aid work happening across Greater Manchester. As the busiest time of the year approaches more volunteers are also needed at FareShare. This can be on a once a week basis or as part of a work experience in warehousing. Training and expenses are provided. To find out more about all the roles including driving and office based please contact Liz Lauder, Volunteering & Employability Manager on 0161 223 8200 ex 110.
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