Broadland Housing tenants can benefit from tenancy and independent living skills training – thanks to our membership of Independent East.
Your Own Place CIC successfully delivered its Tenancy and Independent Living Skills (TILS+) workshops to Saffron Housing Trust tenants last year. These engaging, practical workshops are now being offered to tenants of Broadland, Freebridge and Orwell housing associations, through their membership of Independent East.
From January 2022, Your Own Place, a social enterprise based in East Anglia, will deliver the workshops to tenants at locations across Norfolk and Suffolk. The workshops, a mix of digital and face-to-face sessions, provide opportunities for people of all ages to develop and build on existing skills. A wide range of topics is covered, including saving and budgeting, self-care and wellbeing, and digital skills. The aim is to make a positive difference to tenants’ lives through developing their confidence and resilience.
Helping more people into employment
The partnership with Your Own Place is an exciting collaboration for Independent East. The new initiative aims to help more people into employment, reducing rent arrears and potential future evictions.
Helping people to sustain their tenancies is a central part of what Broadland do. We are thrilled to be part of this partnership with Independent East and Your Own Place to invest in more support and training for many more people.
Catherine Little, Executive Housing Director, Broadland Housing Association
We’re absolutely delighted to be working not just with the residents of 4 regional housing associations, but with 4 housing associations that want to collaborate, support residents from across East Anglia and recognise that our Tenancy & Independent Living Skills Plus (TILS+) are beneficial for any person in any situation. Their compassion and understanding that having an impact on lives goes way beyond just being their landlord is why we want to work with them and be a part of building on the skills that tenants already have. We know that the residents we work with are experts in their own lives, we respect their experiences and contributions and love the two-way learning. Fun, participative and engaging workshops will be delivered with 400 tenants during 2022 across 8 different locations – with the aim of building the skills to be happy in their homes and ultimately prevent homelessness.
Rebecca White, CEO, Your Own Place
We have been really pleased with how well the workshops have been received by Saffron’s tenants and it’s fantastic that it’s now going to be delivered by Independent East to help even more tenants across the region. Not only is it a great opportunity for them to learn new skills, but it provides scope for tenants to meet those from other housing associations, share their experiences, support one another and help create cohesive communities.
Paula Tuck, Assistant Director of Customer Services at Saffron and member of the Independent East Residents Group
Watch a video of Chantay, one of Saffron’s tenants, talking about her experience of the TILS+ workshops (credit: Your Own Place).