Resources to support resident groups

Financial support

We aim to provide financial certainty to local groups by working with them to secure their budget allocation before the beginning of the new financial year. That way each group knows how much money they have for their years activities.

Our Customer Forum has agreed initial funding for each group of £500 however this flexible in order to meet the needs of individual groups. (The funding all all groups in currently under review with tenants and an improved funding system will be in place from 1st April 2010).

We will:

• Support the core activity funding of the group
• Provide adequate funding for running costs to each group so that they can run independently within the agreed rules
• Encourage and support each group to apply for extra funding for community events or tenant priorities.
• Acknowledge receipt of a group’s funding application within 5 working days
• Confirm funding to the group within 10 working days of receiving the application
• Provide funding to the group within 20 working days of confirmation
• Provide staff support.

Our tenants told us that they wanted extra support so we increased our Resident Involvement Team from 1 to 3 officers in 2007. Since then, we have introduced and appointed Lisa Howarth as Head of Customer Services and Community Investment to lead our resident involvement activities.

Each Resident Involvement Officer is responsible for an area of the city and local provides each group with as much support as they want. This ranges from training, supporting an event or helping with paperwork or accessing funding, as examples. The support is always flexible to ensure we meet the needs of groups. We also want our groups to use computers in their dealings with us and so we will provide equipment, training and support for this.

Our officers work with each group’s committee to provide support and advice on constitutions, local partnership agreements, advice on and running the group. This ensures that residents can get involved in national debates or local matters that may affect them. An example, of this is the national standards debate through the Tenant Services Authority. 

We will:

•  Provide resources to support each group in the ways and at the pace they want
•  Agree and arrange events and Community Pride days with each group’s committee
•  Support local community events
•  Support access to a PC and provide funding to buy, maintain and replace computer equipment
•  Provide relevant training to develop each group on the use of computer software and the internet
•  Provide places where possible on relevant seminars and conferences to assist in group development
•  Provide information about groups on our website
•  Ensure each group has a suitable website of their own (if they want one)
•  Ensure each group has community premises to support their work.