We aim to put tenants at the heart of what we do by offering a wide range of opportunities to get involved and influence the range and quality of our services.
At Howard Cottage, tenant involvement is set up to allow people to take part at a level suitable to them.
So whether you wish to consider joining the Board as a tenant board member, play an active part in HeCTA, the Tenants’ Association, take part in a survey or simply share your views by completing one of our ‘Comments, Compliments and Complaints’ slips, there is an opportunity for you to participate.
However big or small your contribution, we will listen and be influenced by your views and ideas.
To discover more about how tenants have worked together with us for better housing services please click here.
For more information on any of the below subjects please contact Jon Thurlow
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In his search for the new David Beckham, Stuart Marlow, HC Cougars under 8's Manager is inviting children aged 5 upwards to take part in a 'taster' football traning session.
The session will take place at Hitchin College indoor sports centre on a Monday evening in the near future. If your son or daugther would like to take part please call Stuart on 01462 623581 for more details
Meanwhile, new under 8's coach Chris Brown is putting his FA Coaching skills to good use this season with the team and is seeking new players to join. If your son or daughter's 8th birthday falls between now and next August and they would like to take part in fun traning sessions in a safe environment to develop their football skills then please call Stuart on the number above. Matches take place on Saturday mornings.
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All coaches hold FA ‘level one’ coaching badges and have been CRB Checked.
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The Tenants Association for all Howard Cottage Residents
For further information click on this link (word 201.2kb)
HeCTA Quarterly Round Up to May 2008
To view the report please click on the attached link (word 27.1kb)
The Tenants Association is independent and run to represent the views of tenants to the Housing Association. All tenants are automatically members of HeCTA and some chose to become more formally involved as representatives on the HeCTA Committee. Howard Cottage provides the Committee with financial support to provide training, produce of newsletters, organise social events and pay for the day-to-day running of the Association.
If you would like to come along to a Committee meeting please contact Mike Durrant (HeCTA Chairman) via email - hecta.info@ntlworld.com or via post;
HeCTA
Po Box 211
Letchworth
SG6 4ZP
The Board of Howard Cottage Housing Association is responsible for making policy decisions regarding the management of residents’ homes. The Board has thirteen members of which four positions are currently residents.
In Addition to the Board, residents also sit on our Board Committees, with responsibility for Housing, Maintenance and Finance.
Board vacancies for permanent resident members are advertised in ‘In Touch’, our residents' newsletter.
In 2008 we will be introducing more ways for our village residents to participate. This will include a Village Panel to advise Howard Cottage on how our services are delivered from a rural perspective. Village residents will also be involved in our service reviews, carried out to improve our housing services in ways residents want while maintaining value for money.
If you live in a village and would like to get involved in either the panel or the service reviews please contact
Jon Thurlow.
Would you like to influence what major repairs and refurbishments are carried out to tenants’ homes? Would you like to participate in setting the works timetable? Maybe have a hand in selecting our contactors and help us to continually improve our repairs and development service for the benefit of existing and future tenants?
If your answer is ‘Yes!’ have you thought about getting involved in the Major Works Tenants’ Panel?
A number of places are available on the Panel and we would like to hear from you. The Panel meet every few months and, since forming in 2003, have influenced major repairs like re roofing, replacement windows and new kitchens and bathrooms. Recently, the Panel took part in selecting external decorating contractors and chose a selection of kitchen finishes offered to tenants undergoing refurbishment to their homes. The Panel also helped to set the replacement window timetable in our older ‘listed’ properties.
Howard Cottage believes that with a clear understanding of your homes and neighbourhoods you should have an opportunity to influence decisions about major repairs. The Panel are meeting again soon so why not come along and get involved?
As part of our commitment to achieving continuous service improvements, individual tenants from the black and ethnic minority community are being invited to become ‘consultants’ who can be approached directly on future relevant housing issues offering Howard Cottage a culturally diverse perspective on housing issues. Twenty tenants have volunteered to take part and their involvement so far has been extremely valuable.
An annual fund has been set up to encourage tenants to look critically at their surroundings, talk to their neighbours and together come up with projects to improve their neighbourhoods. This could include anything from improved landscaping, to setting up an After School Club. Successes so far include a patio in a communal back garden and additional security fencing surrounding a car park.
In addition to decision making forums, the Housing Association also works with tenants on projects aimed at generating community spirit and promoting a healthy community.
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Since 2002, Howard Cottage has worked in partnership with North Herts College Community Learning team to offer IT an internet training courses to Older residents. To date almost 50 residents have taken part in courses and some have even gained national qualifications in Computer technology!
Our courses are designed for absolute beginners through to those who already have a basic knowledge of Personal Computers. In summer 2006 we also ran popular short ‘lifestyle’ courses in Digital photography and Desktop Publishing and hope to continue with these in future.
For more information on any of the above subjects please contact Jon Thurlow
Click on the below images to go to the web site;
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