Our Community Street and Getting Involved!

This is how we are currently engaging with our residents...let us know what you would like to see more of!

Community street October - March

  • Community projects - Working with our tenants on gardening and art projects in our Sheltered housing schemes and our estates. Including projects such as the Adams Elm choir.
  • Sheltered Housing Activities - These are smaller activities which take place in our Sheltered Housing Schemes such as falls prevention classes.
  • Hostel Projects — These are smaller activities taking place in our hostels usually during the school holidays, providing children with a meal and activities whilst school is closed.
  • Coffee mornings - To support tenants in setting up resident associations, work with established groups to represent residents views and concerns, encourage and promote community spirit.
  • Resident Associations — These are made up of a group of residents who wish to make a difference in their area. They hold regular meetings with their neighbours and invite guest speakers to attend including officers from South Essex Homes.
  • Digital Project - Meeting with Sheltered Housing residents to help them get online and learn to use technology
  • Consultations — These are in the form of surveys, focus groups, or meeting with residents to discuss their views on their community and wider areas of service.

Ways to get Involved

South Essex Homes are keen to involve residents in the work we do and actively encourage tenants' input.

You can click here to view our  Resident Engagement Strategy 2022.pdf[pdf] 197KB

We want residents to be able to give us feedback on our services so we can improve how we do things.  We know that residents prefer to do this in a different ways so we offer a range of ways to tell us what you think, so everyone can find something that fits in with them and their lifestyle. 

There are real benefits of being involved in our work including:

  • Making a difference in the services we provide
  • Learning new skills – we can provide great training
  • Improving your career chances and enhancing your CV by getting new experiences that employers are looking for
  • Meeting new people
  • Making your community a better place to live. 

There are various different ways that you can play your part in shaping the future of your local community.

If you have any questions or want to express an interest in getting involved then our Support Services Team would be delighted to hear from you.

You can contact the team on 01702 212650 or email sehcustomerservices@seh.southend.gov.uk

Could you be an Armchair Supporter?

Woman sitting in her chair and using her phone

Busy with work? Hectic home life? Limited free time?

Please be an Armchair Supporter

We manage housing for thousands of busy families in Southend so we understand that your free time is limited and precious.  Unfortunately households like yours are often under-represented so we don’t always get to hear your views as much as we’d like to.

What can you do?

Please ‘like’ our Facebook page and follow our Twitter and Instagram accounts.  You’ll then be able to follow our posts when you sit down and scroll your socials at the end of a busy day and can comment and share them in order to help our message reach as wide an audience as possible.  We put all kinds of information on these pages – from latest news and events to our current job vacancies, so they’re well worth a look.

Look out for surveys we’re running and take a few minutes to complete them.  There’s sometimes a prize up for grabs too.

Talk to us!  If you have an issue, let us know because if you don’t tell us, we may not know about it.  That way, we have a good chance of being able to put it right.  You can find out who your Tenancy Services Officer is and how to contact them via www.seh-website-staging.verseonecloud.com/tenancy

Be a good neighbour – as much as we’d like to, we can’t be there to look out for everyone all of the time.  Please look out for your neighbours and check in on them if you can, especially if they live alone.  If you are concerned about anyone, please let us know or call 999 in an emergency.

 

Facebook – search for our pages ‘South Essex Homes’, ‘South Essex Property Services’ and ‘CarelineSOS’

Twitter - @SouthEssexHomes

Instagram – southessexhomes

Could you represent your community?

Could you represent your community?

Want to help your local neighbourhood but lead a busy life?

Please be a Neighbourhood Helper

You may be fired up about a particular issue in your neighbourhood and want to help resolve the problems that particularly affect your street or block.  If you feel strong enough about it to give a bit of free time but are conscious that it has to fit in around your busy lifestyle and other commitments, there are things you can do.

What can you do?

Consider becoming a Resident Representative. Previously known as ‘Street Voices’ or ‘Block Voices’, Resident Reps do just that – they gather the views of all residents (at a time and in a way that suits them) and then speak to us at South Essex Homes on behalf of your neighbourhood to represent their collective views, highlight issues and suggest solutions to problems.

If there is a specific issue that needs addressing in your estate, you could set up an Action Group to tackle it.  We can help you to join forces with neighbours and arrange meetings to discuss ways to overcome the issue.  Or to target general issues on an ongoing basis, you could make it more formal by setting up a Residents Association if one doesn’t already exist where you live – we can help you do this too.

Join our Digital Involvement revolution! We are soon to start holding a variety of resident meetings via Zoom.  So far we are planning informal online coffee mornings, art projects, online courses and keep fit sessions to name but a few.  We will be promoting these via social media and on our website so please keep a look out for them!

Participate in community events.  As a resident, you and your family are automatically considered as members of Southend Tenants & Residents Federation (STRF).  STRF arranges lots of free community events in the town (when they are able to of course) so look out for details and, if convenient, please take the time to go along to them. 

Check out www.strf.ukfor updates.

Could you be a Community Champion?

Could you be a Community Champion?

Are you twiddling your thumbs at home, looking for a new challenge?  
Are you passionate about a particular issue that affects the Southend community? Do you find yourself with a bit of time on your hands and the willingness to really make a difference, but don’t have a clue where to start?

Please be a Community Champion

What can you do?

  • Volunteer to help support a community project.  We are involved in the running of a number of initiatives across the town including community Hubs, food banks, youth involvement projects, gardening and healthy living projects.  They are always happy for extra pairs of hands to help them!
  • Join a Focus Group.  We operate a number of Focus Groups who meet to discuss various aspects of the work South Essex Homes does to manage and maintain social housing in Southend.  If you are interested in the way our business is run and would like to have your say, new members are always welcomed.
  • Join the Resident Scrutiny Forum.  This is a group of residents who pick an area of our business and thoroughly scrutinise it.  They then make recommendations on what we can do to improve things to improve the service for residents and maximise value for money.
  • Become a Tenant Board Member!  3 out of the 11 people on our Board of Directors are our tenants.  Look out for vacancies for these positions and really have a direct say in the running of the company.

Inclusion, equality, overcoming barriers

The resident engagement commitments outlined in our strategy are aimed at giving all our residents a fair and equal opportunity to get involved. To enable residents to be actively engaged and involved with us, we will address potential barriers to engagement by:

  • Paying travel expenses and arranging travel if necessary.
  • Paying childcare and carer costs.
  • Providing information in alternative formats and languages.
  • Accommodating additional support required by residents to participate in engagement activities.
  • Lending or providing IT equipment when required.
  • Providing training and support so that customers can develop and enhance their skills and knowledge.
  • Offering a wide variety of audio, visual and written engagement opportunities.
  • Promoting digital inclusion and digital confidence.
  • Considering the offer of mentoring and peer support.