Improving our neighbourhoods and environment
What we promised in 2002:
- Develop the role of estate caretakers
- Continue to develop community projects
- Tackle issues associated with social exclusion
What we did
Our team of Estate Caretakers provide an invaluable service to our local communities by ensuring that our estates are clean and tidy. They have been a popular addition to our range of services and our customers appreciate the hard work they put in to keeping our estates looking presentable. Their popularity has seen the team grow from just two members at transfer to the eight-strong team we have in place now.
We have also worked to improve the look and accessibility of some our estates through a series of estate-based environmental improvement programmes. This has involved planting, landscaping and the installation of off-street parking bays.
Our recently formed Developing Active Neighbourhoods team has brought together work from different areas into one specialised, centralised team. We have recruited a number of new posts over the last couple of years to address issues at the forefront of community focus such as healthy eating and living, worklessness, active ageing and youth engagement. We have introduced a number of schemes to work with people on our estates to tackle social exclusion and take steps to improve the lives of our tenants.
Some of our projects include:
- A full calendar of activities at our sheltered schemes for older people including Tai Chi, tea dances, bingo and Nintendo Wii competitions, as well as our annual Grey Matters Week events
- A total of 12 Shoots food clubs providing affordable fruit, vegetables and eggs to tenants in some of our more deprived areas
- A successful series of events to promote employment and training opportunities in the local area
- A range of healthy activities for young people such as rounders, dance groups and cheerleading as well as health awareness campaigns for adults such as 'Get checked'
In a bid to tackle financial exclusion on our estates, particularly in the current financial climate, we have introduced a team of staff to assist our tenants with all matters associated with finances. The Money Matters team are a recent addition to Team Helena but are already working hard to address the issues surrounding benefit entitlement, fuel poverty and debt. The team consists of a Welfare Officer, two Welfare Benefit Advisors, a Financial Inclusion Officer and Affordable Warmth Officer.
Click here to access our 2010 Promises document (PDF format)>>
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