THE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE TEAM
Event Feedback

Small Housing Tenant's Conference

On the 19th of July a group of Resident Shareholders attended the Small Housing Tenant’s Conference in Warrington. The topic of the day was the service that tenants receive from their housing provider and the Local Offer.

When we arrived Shareholders helped by welcoming and signing people in. The conference was unlike many other conferences; it was filled with tasks that everyone had to take part in; the first task was to contact a housing provider and ask them a question that had been prepared earlier and then report back on the service they received and how helpful the staff were. The day went great with Forum residents, Mark Thain, Georgina Jones and ex-resident Jerome Harrison providing entertainment to end the day with a bang.

Good News Stories!

Our very own Chris O’Toole has finally graduated from University, everyone at Forum is very proud of him.

James Walker from the Bridge now has a job working at the Jaguar Land Rover factory in Halewood, Knowsley.

Janie Hick, who is an ex-resident from Ash Villas now has a job working as a support worker for children with autism and learning difficulties. Janie was awarded money from the ‘Can Do Fund’ to pay for new clothes and a haircut for her new role. All of the staff from Ash Villas are really proud of Janie.

Georgina Jones, Aimee Barratt and Matthew Griffiths from the Lock along with Ellis Evans, Hayley Ross and Jake Stathers from the Quays have all just completed the BTEC Work Skills programme with Craig Donaldson in Ellesmere Port.

Louie Griffin from Akenside recently met up with Mark Dowd: Head of Merseytravel to talk about all things
business. We’re sure by the cheesy grins in the photo that both of them enjoyed this
venture.

If you have any good news stories from your project that you would like to appear in the next newsletter then please get in contact with the Resi Rep Team.

Monthly Resident Shareholder Panel

Every month we hold a meeting which is open to all Resident
Shareholders. Last month’s meeting was held on the 19th of July in the Wirral Speak Ezy and started at 17:00, food and refreshments were provided before the meeting started at 17:30.

We had two guest speakers in attendance: Barry from Wirral Ark Dinghies, who told everyone about the great activities they hold involving restoring and selling old boats. We also had Gary Chwalko, who is our Head of Service Development; who discussed with the Shareholders the Visitors Policy and the Alcohol Policy within the projects. Amy reminded everyone of the Shareholder’s role and a reminder that each project within Forum is allowed £30 a week so the Shareholders can run their own activities.

Again the Shareholder Panel Meetings are held every month and any resident within Forum is welcome to attend, this way you can decide whether or not the Shareholder role is right for you.

Fashion Rocks

On the 28th of July some of the residents from Market Wells and several other projects held the Fashion Rocks show at the Williamson Art Gallery.

The event showcased different styles of fashion and music from throughout the decades including Rock ‘n’ Roll from the 50s, a Psychedelic Woodstock feel from the 60s, Punk from the 70s, Goth & New Wave from the 80s, Grunge from the 90s and new fashions from 2000 onwards.

The show featured music from all of the different decades and finished with all the participants taking part in a brilliant finale. The show was attended by the Mayor of Wirral and afterwards there was a raffle and it was announced that all of the clothes used in the fashion show were available to buy.

Shareholder Activity

The Shareholder Activities take place once a month and are open to anyone who attends the monthly Resident Shareholder Panel. All of the young people who attended June’s meeting were invited to a cinema trip.

On July the 19th Chris Jones and Sam Smith along with ten Resident Shareholders (three from Grange Road West, three from The Beacon, two from The Lock and two ex-residents) visited the VUE Cinema in Birkenhead to watch Transformers : Dark Side of the Moon; everyone who attended really enjoyed the film. Afterwards they travelled back to the Wirral Speak Ezy for food, drinks and a chat about the film.

The next Shareholder Activity is planned for August and is open to any of you who attended the July Shareholder Panel.

Forum goes to Holland

At the back end of last year, Forum were invited to an International Conference about Homelessness to speak about our organisation, and what we offer our residents. Whilst Amy and Pete gave a presentation on Forum to the delegates, Chris Jones and Shareholder Becki Ross manned a stall giving information on the Association, and how Forum had helped our Young People.

The Association had been recommended to the Conference by Wirral Borough Council because of our unique reputation in engaging with young people. Forum were invited to represent and fly the flag for England, and share our experiences and discuss the best practice procedure.

Area Forum

2 staff and 3 young people attended the Area Forum at Rock Ferry in February. There were some misconceptions shared by the community about Forum and young people. The young people conducted themselves like true passionate adults and shared the following information with the public and panel of professionals

• They wanted to have support to get into employment and education
• Pro-active 'incentive' projects to change young people's perspectives of working and attending college also funding to find their passion for their career.
• Confidence building and learning courses.

The young people also felt this was a safe and privileged arena to tackle prejudice on homelessness and young people and the Resident Rep Team are working towards getting more opportunities to do this.

Area Youth Forum Bid

The Project Reps are democratically voted in by their peers at their Projects through an election process which forms the Residents’ Panel.  They meet once a month to proactively work on bid applications, tackle issues across the Association, undertake consultation internally and externally, but also have the opportunity to be trained up and most importantly have fun!

The Panel’s aim for this project is to reduce drug and alcohol misuse in the youth community and raise awareness about how to prevent petty crime, vandalism and anti social behaviour. We aim to reduce these issues by setting up sport activities and using peer education as a tool.

In addition young people want to produce a short DVD that provokes debate and conversation for future residents.

This is being fully supported by Youth Participation Assistants working with us for 6 months through the Future Jobs Fund and they are thoroughly enjoying working on this with the young people.

Anthony Walker Foundation Consultation

This session was to positively tackle some issues we identified about racism.

We contacted and invited in a representative from the Anthony Walker Foundation to come and deliver a session using the film ‘Colour Blind’ (directed by Lenny Henry) which takes a young and unique look at society and racism.  Colour Blind is fully supported by the Anthony Walker Foundation and was sponsored by Liverpool Football Club.

The session was run by a phenomenal man who worked well with the young people; the young people challenged him and he challenged them. Since running this session we have had no incidents of racism in that Project however we are proactive and aware that we have to continue to do these pieces of educational work.

Homeless Education Workshop

This opportunity was to raise awareness about homelessness and some of the factors affecting young people’s lives today, challenge stereotypical views and perceptions of “homeless” people through interactive sessions and activities giving students a chance to ask the questions!

This also empowered residents of Forum by giving responsibility to attend this event and the opportunity to share true life experiences.