A successful Parent and Toddler group is now running at Barrackswood where youngsters had fun outside planting flowers.

At Fairview, special events were held during half term and Easter holidays. Youngsters were involved in painting pebbles, building bird houses and making their own sock puppets!

Well done Monika for all your hard work!

You can view more information about Charter’s weekly activities here: New Activities for Charter Tenants

Adult Learners Week is taking place across South East Wales this week from 12-20 May and Charter are encouraging its tenants to take part in this annual event, providing opportunities to attend short taster sessions on a variety of stimulating topics. Residents will have the opportunity to expand their horizons and try something new.

Scott Sanders, Charter’s Director of Housing said “Adult Learning week is a brilliant way for Charter tenants to come together to learn exciting new skills”.

Activities range from learning how to dance, craft making and even “gadget training” for the more technologically unaware! A free dance class called “Strictly Charter” was held at Danceworld, Lower Dock Street with instructor Bob, teaching the basic steps for dances such as the Foxtrot and Cha-cha.

Charter tenant Becky Taylor from Newport said “I have never heard of Adult Learners Week before, but am so glad I went along today. Dancing is not only a fantastic way to keep fit, but a really great way to meet new friends.”

The annual festival, which is expected to attract 30,000 people across Wales, is organised by NIACE Dysgu Cymru with support from the Welsh Government.

Over 600 events and activities are being planned across Wales by partners. For full lists of free taster sessions, events and activities near you, visit their website: www.yourfuturechoiceaction.org.uk.

The information will be used by Charter’s new Tenant Insight Manager, Alan Ward, to target our services to those tenants requiring additional support. The information will also be used to ensure we are providing services to our tenants fairly and equally.

The handbook has been designed and printed in Wales and is produced on lightweight, sustainable paper. It replaces any previous handbooks you may have.

The handbook was created from feedback through our tenant assessor programme, on which tenants spend up to a month shadowing a Charter team so they can suggest improvements to our services.

You’ll need to keep your new tenant’s handbook until we issue a new one. We also have a DVD on holding a tenancy; you can request a copy by calling 01633 678503 or emailing us.

You can view the handbook here:Tenant Handbook

Charter’s Nuisance Prevention Team deals with an average of 312 cases of anti-social behaviour a year. Annually, just 12 cases result in legal action through the County Court.  The vast majority of cases are resolved through mutual agreement and/or mediation. The Nuisance Prevention team are trained to deal with anti-social behaviour and do not use solicitors, saving an average £27,000 annually.

Read all about the team’s work in our new Tenant’s Handbook, out this month. For more information, including legal definitions and case studies or contact the team on 01633 212375.

We often run FREE workshops and courses on a variety of subjects and skills. Please email getinvolved@charterhousing.co.uk for details.

Designed to meet Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and built using modern methods of construction, the homes will extremely energy efficient.

The properties will be ready to move into during later summer 2012 and we are holding an open even on 18th April between 4 – 7pm at the Babington Centre.

For more information, please see our Boradstone Newsletter.

During the week commencing 23rd April, staff will visit many of our properties to carry out a tenant satisfaction survey and to update the information we hold about you and your household. Full details about this are in the spring 2012 edition of Contact magazine. We will be in the following areas on these days:

Caerphilly County Borough – Monday
Monmouthshire – Tuesday
Newport City – Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
Torfaen – Friday

We hope to visit 1500 tenants – those we can’t visit will receive a postal questionnaire or a telephone call.

Why do we need to collect information about you and the people who live with you?
We need to know all about you to make sure we provide you with the right service. We use your rent to provide services, so if we don’t deliver the right ones, we waste your money.

We need to ensure that no one is disadvantaged or discriminated against when using our services. This is important so we can meet the requirements of the new Equalities Act which became law in 2010.

What kinds of personal questions will we ask?
We’ll ask personal information about you and everyone who lives with you. We will ask you about your contact details, your ethnicity and religion, your sexuality, whether you have any disabilities, your income and whether you are employed, whether you have any debts we can help you with and if you would be interested in doing some volunteer work.

What other questions will we ask?
We’ll ask what you think about Charter’s services so we can see how we are doing. We take people’s feedback very seriously; so please be honest and open with staff.

What if I don’t want to answer a question?
If you don’t want to answer a question that’s fine; we will explain why we are asking it so you can make a decision.

How will we collect your information?
We’ll use a laptop computer to record your answers, because it’s quick and keeps your information confidential. This means that we’ll need to come into your home and plug in the laptop if you are happy for us to do this.

How will we keep the information safe?
The laptops are password protected; at the end of each day they’ll be returned to the office and the data removed. The information will be uploaded into our secure tenant data base. We won’t share your personal information with anyone else, unless you tell us we can, or we have to comply with legal requirements to do so.

How will we use your information?
We will use the information in lots of ways, such as targeting services and information to specific groups of people. One of the biggest worries for lots of our tenants is the changes which are planned to welfare benefits.

Once we know your income details and what benefits you receive, we will be able to give you specific advice to support you through these changes.

If you would like more information please contact Alan Ward, Tenant Insight Manager on 01633 678539 or alan.ward@charterhousing.co.uk