Putting Older People at the Heart of the Community

The Resident Involvement and Community Engagement team works to encourage and enable all Willow's service users to take part in, comment on and influence Willow Housing and Care services, as well as getting involved in the wider community.

Staff at every level recognise how valuable involvement is and are committed to listening to the views, suggestions and concerns of residents and service users. Formal and informal consultation is facilitated through surveys, house meetings and our magazine for residents, Willow Matters.

Residents are represented at Board and Services Committee level. Each sheltered and extra care scheme is encouraged to elect a representative to sit on the Tenants Forum which meets bi-monthly to discuss a range of issues related to their housing and the services they receive, and to which management undertake to respond. From the Forum membership, residents are elected onto our board as full members.

The role of the team is to:

• bring residents closer to the centre of decision making
• support residents to gain the skills and confidence to enable them to be more meaningfully involved
• provide general help, guidance and advice about the association and  the way it works
• encourage residents to get involved in social, educational and recreational activities, offering a programme of events and initiatives to  join in and make friends.

Tenant Scrutiny Panel

In addition, a new Tenant Scrutiny Panel is being established to formally involve more of our residents in scrutinising our services against our standards.

We are currently seeking tenant volunteers to join this panel.  Appropriate training will be provided.

Resident activities

Willow provides a diverse programme of activities for residents, including:

• adult learning programmes, such as how to use a computer
• healthy living activities - swimming, keep fit, gardening and dancing
• social events and trips, in conjunction with scheme based staff
• annual conferences for residents
• inter-generational work with local schools
• Diversity forum and culturally specific celebrations.

The team work with voluntary and community groups, encourage volunteering and support social work students to work with older people.

Willow also has its own mini-bus, invaluable in ensuring our more vulnerable tenants can attend meetings and social activities.