This page is designed to hold up-to-date news for our tenants. You can find our policies, procedures and newsletters on the Downloads page and answers to frequently asked questions in the Tenant Zone FAQ.
Are you looking for work?
If you are, you could do worse than check out Blue Orchid recruitment. They have a number of vacancies through their Get Into Housing programme. The vacancies are varied and updated regularly by the landlords involved in the programme.
Once registered on the programme, Blue Orchid can provide flexible and free back to work support. Their employment support programme can help you:
• Prepare your CV
• Develop your interview technique
• Build your skills to help you find the right job
• Improve your confidence through training and one-to-one support
• Identify training opportunities
With this free support and training, opportunities can come out of the blue. To find out more and register on the programme call their team on 0161 485 4949 or contact them by e-mail at events@theblueorchid.co.uk.
People First joins HomeSwapper
People First have recently joined HomeSwapper, a service that helps tenants swap homes with each other. Mutual exchanges allow people to legally swap their home with another housing association or council tenant.
People choose to swap their homes for a variety of reasons. For example:• Someone who wants to live near an elderly relative in London might want to swap with another person who has just got a job in Manchester
• Or someone who lives alone in a three-bedroom house might want to swap with a young family who are crammed into a one-bedroom flat!
HomeSwapper helps people who want to swap find each other.
HomeSwapper is available to all housing association and council tenants. Usually, tenants have to pay £7.75 every 90 days to advertise their home, but because of our landlord membership, People First tenants can use the service for free.
• Every year, 16,000 households find a new home through HomeSwapper.
• More than 140,000 people are currently registered on the HomeSwapper service.
• On average, members get 75 matches - most of them within 24 hours.
• Match alerts are sent by email or text message automatically.
Find out more at the HomeSwapper website.
Learning Together Partnership
People First continues to work in partnership with other landlords to deliver a training programme for tenants. The aim of the programme is to equip people to become more involved in the day-to-day decisions made by their landlord.
We have already delivered several sessions, but it is never too late to become involved. The sessions are designed to allow people to "dip in" whenever something interests them. The programme will continue between now and the end of 2010. Upcoming sessions include:
• 14 September: Tenancy Agreements and Rights. What are your tenancy rights and is your tenancy agreement fair? What do those rights mean in practice and how are they affected by the law? What about those "Human Rights" we keep hearing people talk about? Find out more in this session.
• 8 December: Annual General Meeting at City South Housing, where the programme for 2011 will be set.
• To be arranged: Value for Money. What do we mean when we say "value for money"? Does your landlord always get the best price? Could they save money and deliver better services at the same time? Find out about different approaches people have used to make sure rental income stretches that little bit further.
The sessions are held at various venues around Greater Manchester and lunch is always provided. The sessions are FREE to tenants and we can even help you with transport.
If any of the sessions sounds interesting to you, please contact David Nugent at our head office
Fair services for all
Do you care about the services we provide? Do you think we should treat everyone equally? Well, why not join our Equality & Diversity Review Group?
Every six months, a small group of Board members and frontline staff meet up to review what we do to make our services better for everyone. In the past, the group has discussed:
• whether our staff and contractors are representative of our tenants
• how easy it is for people to get into and around our offices
• if our leaflets and newsletters are easy top understand or not
• whether any of our policies could discriminate against people
• whether people are getting the same services regardless of their background
We would like to involve a small number of tenants in the group: That means you! You would need to come to a ninety-minute meeting every six months or so, where you would be asked for your views and have the opportunity to put forward your own ideas.
The meetings usually take place at our head office around 5.30 in the evening and food is provided. If you think you might be interested, please contact David Nugent at our head office.