As the bitter chill of winter swept across the
country Riverside braved the elements to stage two events to
showcase our status as Co-Regulation Champions.
The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) selected ten
“champions” of resident involvement for 2011 from all over the
country. Of the ten organisations chosen Riverside was the only
national Housing Provider to earn this accolade.
On 29 November the second of our Co-Regulation
events took place at the Cambridge Youth Foyer. Held under the
title “Focusing on the Future”, the event was about the work we do
with young residents to help them develop the skills they need to
improve their lives.
Despite the gales and the rain lashing the
grounds of the Foyer the young residents pressed ahead with their
Plan A of staging the workshops in a marquee. And it was a great
success as almost 60 people attended and heard:
· how tenants at
the Peppercorn Lodge were inspired to pass on skills learnt to
others
· how The Cambridge
Youth Foyer supports residents in their education and training,
working with agencies such as The Prince’s Trust and the Cambridge
Regional College
· how residents at
the Cangle Foyer are directly involved in shaping services, feeding
back to staff and having a say on policies are offered training on
subjects such as first aid and sexual health
· how the residents
at the Powerhouse Foyer in Liverpool put their heads together to
turn the grounds at the back of their building into a welcoming
garden retreat for all seasons
· how successes
that the Cangle Foyer is proud of mean many former clients pop back
to the Foyer for a catch up and a cup of tea. The final workshop
showcased some of these success stories.
Young residents led the way in each session,
demonstrating enthusiasm and commitment to the work being carried
out and a clear understanding of their own role in helping shape
the services we provide.
Peter Donegan, Riverside’s Resident
Involvement Strategy Manager, summed up the feelings of everyone at
the event when he said, “I was struck by the way the young people
who spoke today showed not only how much they valued the services
Riverside provide but how much they wanted to be involved in making
those services work well both for themselves and for future
residents who may need them. Their energy and their stories were an
inspiration to all of us.”
Two weeks after the youth were centre stage,
on 13 December Riverside organised a forum to discuss the way
tenants have helped fashion the services we provide for older
people.
Thirty five delegates, from six different
Housing Associations, gathered at the Breckfield and North Everton
Neighbourhood Council centre (BNENC) in Liverpool to hear how older
tenants and residents have “Come in from the Cold” through their
participation in Riverside’s “LiveTime” project.
The project aims to support older people by
addressing basic needs such as financial inclusion and affordable
warmth; looking to engage people in activities to combat isolation;
promotion of a healthy life style and the involvement of the young,
the old and the middle aged in work within communities.
The BNENC event demonstrated just how well the
project is working and just how much tenant involvement there is in
carrying it into life. Tenants and residents from the wider
community spoke about how they had battled against the odds to
maintain a lunch club at one of Liverpool’s older person schemes,
Thirlmere Court.
The nutritious and affordable food on offer
from the lunch club is increasingly being sustained by Thirlmere’s
Community garden where residents, BNENC staff and volunteers from
the local area have got together to turn a patch of land into a
colourful oasis of home grown vegetables as well as colourful
flowers.
A resident from the Lee Valley area of
Liverpool told the story of the area’s Pensioner’s Club which has
now been going strong for nine years and offers a range of
activities – from cultural trips, educational opportunities and fun
days out – to pensioners.
Each story told by the tenants underlined the
importance of LiveTime as a way of breaking down the isolation many
older people face. But they also demonstrated the importance of
tenant input – to determine priorities, to tell us what the real
needs of older people are, and to make sure that the word is spread
by tenants to tenants.
This last point was well demonstrated by the
tenant consultation on LiveTime at one scheme, Cathedral Court,
where it was rejected as an option. Tenants from Thirlmere visited
Cathedral and were invited to a meeting to re-discuss launching the
project. Tenant to tenant discussions changed the whole situation
and as a result Cathedral Court voted overwhelmingly to become a
hub for the project.
Jane Mindar, Riverside’s LiveTime Project
Manager, said, “The passion of the tenants was infectious and
everyone at the event was talking about how co-regulation in
practice could be turned from a box-ticking activity into a means
of developing a service that really helped transform people’s
lives.”
For further informaiton about the events contact Mark Hoskisson
on 0151 295 6169.