Nine members of our residents forum attended residential training at the award-winning National Tenant Resource Centre in Chester organised by our Community Investment Team recently.

Residents took part in a 1-day intensive course in 'developing community leaders' which enabled key residents (as a strategic group) to clarify their own roles, motivation and vision for their communities, including how the forum should operate. They had an opportunity to action plan for projects in their local neighbourhoods.

Network, share ideas and collaborate...

The course provided an excellent opportunity for residents to meet in a beautiful rural setting in the North West to network, share ideas and make plans to collaborate on new initiatives.

The weekend also gave us the chance to work with residents to finalise our pilot Resident Involvement Incentive Scheme (rewarding active residents for getting involved with us or in their communities) and explore how we can make community projects and initiatives ‘Resident led’ at its core. The findings from these workshops will feed into the work we are developing around this.

Sarah Mbatha, Regional Housing Director, said, ‘This was a great opportunity for residents to develop and gel together as a group, to help maximise their role. 

Residents were also able to get to know key CI officers better which lays good foundations for strong and constructive partnership working between officers and residents .'

Heather Reynolds, a forum member who attended said, 'I really enjoyed it, it made things clearer for my role in the forum and made me think about where I am and what I can do for the residents around me. It really boosted my confidence to approach my neighbours to get them involved in things. It was great to hear others points of view and about their areas and the different things people are doing or planning to do. I hope to get the chance to do it again and would recommend something like this to anyone.'

'Thanks to the positive outcomes and feedback we are looking to make this an annual resident event. We are confident that we will see the value of our investment returned several times over, through better involvement in forums and increased community activity.’ Mumtaz Samad-Dey, Community Investment Manager.

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