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Weekly Engagement Update

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Each week, we're sharing a round up of what the Community Gateway Team have been up to - whether that's out in the community, catching up with tenants or at local events.

Check it out! 👇

Each week, we're sharing a round up of what the Community Gateway Team have been up to - whether that's out in the community, catching up with tenants or at local events.

Check it out! 👇

  • 12th - 16th August 2024

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    The weather's been a mixed bag this week, but it hasn't put our teams off getting out and about in our communities 👇

    🍅 Worked with our colleagues from Preston Vocational Centre to raise a planting bed to make it accessible for a new plot-holder at our Moor Nook allotments.
    🌞 Went along to two family fun days organised by LCC's Children and Family Wellbeing Service, chatting to tenants and their families.

    👩‍🍳 Good to see tenants and their families enjoying the latest Beanstalk Food and Cookery airfryer session, supported by our Community Fund.

    👔 Supported the delivery of two free school uniform sessions, helping families across Preston.

    ⭐ Our fantastic Independent Living team held the very first Summer Ball for our older tenants - a great night was had by all, look out for more on this story next week....


  • 5th - 9th August 2024

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    What have our teams been up to this week? Over at our extra-care scheme, The Courtyards, Independent Living Officers organised some Olympic-themed crafting for tenants, while Beanstalk Food and Cookery delivered a family air-fryer session which was really popular with the children who took part, making some yummy pizza toast and decorating their own pizza boxes. Our Engagement team held a pop-up in the St Matthew's area, chatting to tenants and listening to their views. The team was also invited to go along to The Sandbag Cafe, held by Veterans In Communities, with a view to some partnership working, supporting tenants who are veterans. We've been busy with school uniform too, sorting and delivering donations to the partners holding sessions, which start next week.


  • 29th July - 2nd August 2024

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    Another busy week to tell you about in our Friday Round-Up!

    📰 We held a Day of Action in Plungington this week – alongside Lancashire Police officers and PCSOs – where we were listening to residents, handing out information and discussing the issues faced by the community.


    📰 Residents at The Courtyards extra care scheme got into the Olympics spirit this week, making miniature Olympic torches and rings.

    📰 Our Mook Nook Allotments are always bustling with activity during the summer months – don’t forget the Family Fun Day, 20/08/24, 1-3pm, book here: https://tinyurl.com/46cuwe8r – and this week was no different, as our Community Engagement Team held a Community Walk Around and Allotment Visit. All the plots at Moor Nook are looking fantastic! Keep up the good work 👍


    📰 Officers took the opportunity to go on a walk around the Ashton area for one of their regular community pop-ups, knocking on tenants’ doors to check in with people, find out how they’re doing, and see if there’s anything we can help them with. If you need to contact Community Gateway to report a repair, or submit another type of query, complaint or compliment, then we’re always happy to help. Contact us: https://tinyurl.com/393k7872

    📰 We had the privilege of speaking to the inspirational 13-year-old Joshua who is volunteering at Farringdon Park Food Club (and at the youth club) as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Award. Congratulations, Joshua, what you’re doing is such a massive help to the two clubs because these things don’t just run themselves! We also chatted with CGA tenants to make sure all is well with them.


    📰 You may have seen our post about this yesterday – https://tinyurl.com/3kbnaepf – but it’s worth shouting about because it’s really vital work that they do: Adam Walmsley from Healthier Heroes CIC visited our homelessness accommodation at The Spires to explain the support available to veterans and their families. We do work with some tenants that are veterans, therefore it’s so important to help them work towards a positive, secure future, especially as they have done such incredible things for this country through their service in the armed forces.

    Have a good weekend everyone, enjoy the sun tomorrow! 😎🌞🌻 and avoid any Sunday showers! 🌧️🌧️


  • 22nd - 26th July 2024

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    What have we been up to this week?


    🥊 Our involvement in the community is really important to us, so we’re pleased to be supporting the PNE Boxing Programme (PNE Community and Education Trust) at Penwortham Boxing Club for young people right across South Ribble and Preston, including children from Moor Nook where we’re trying to get people active and engaged in sport and other community activities. We hope everyone enjoyed getting fit and trying something new. Thank you to PNECET and Penwortham Boxing Club!

    🤝 The Community Gateway Board met on Thursday to discuss important strategic and financial decisions, and to monitor our performance in key areas of service delivery so that we can be confident you are getting the best out of CGA as your landlord. Look out for the latest Chair's Blog early next week.


    🚧 Nice to see work coming along at Lambert Road, a development that’s underway in Ribbleton.

    💸 We laid on an appropriately-football-themed Euro 2024 online game recently for tenants who had completed our Customer Service Matters Survey on the Tenant Hub. Scoring the highest number of points and bagging the £50 voucher, we have…………. Cat! We were delighted to present her with her prize earlier in the week! Thank you, everyone that filled in the survey. We now have a very good sense of what good customer service looks like to you, so we’ll be using your responses going forwards to make our customer service better.


    🗣️ Our brilliant tenants who sit on Gateway Central (the main tenant committee for driving change and improvements to CGA's operations) had an important meeting on Monday to talk about performance and insight information. If you are interested in joining one of our tenant committees, go to: https://www.communitygateway.co.uk/get-involved-1

    📅 No week would be complete without a Gateway2You or a neighbourhood pop-up visit!


    📋 The pop-up this week took place in North Ribbleton, with our Community Engagement and Support Officers knocking on doors to have informal chats about people’s tenancies, neighbourhoods, and any burning issues they wanted to discuss.

    👂 The Gateway2You was earlier today at The Hub at St Bernard’s (Elswick Road, Ashton) – don’t forget, our officers will be visiting The Hub on the last Friday of every month, so that means they’ll be back there on Friday 30 August!



  • 15th - 19th July 2024

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    🏆📜 This particular week in July every year is one of our favourites because it means the Preston Vocational Centre (PVC) Annual Awards Night! Young people (14-19) who’ve been studying with PVC – Community Gateway’s charitable subsidiary – over the last 12 months were joined by parents and guardians for an evening of celebration as they picked up their formal qualifications. Many of the students received certificates for their City & Guilds Awards in Construction Skills, while PVC’s Centre Manager Martin Grayston presented ten other special awards, including Student of the Year, Best All-Round Ability, and Most Improved Student.


    👕🩳 School uniform will be at the forefront of everyone’s minds in about a month’s time, as children prepare to go back to school – so we have joined forces with two community partners who are setting up their own free school uniform shops. As you’ll see pictured below, we’ve been taking donations from the very nice people at Rebuild With Hope Foundation and Morrisons. Thank you!

    🔢🔢 The middle-left image in our collage shows residents at The Courtyards enjoying a belting game of bingo!


    🗺️📌 Finally, to finish this week’s summary, our Community Engagement Officers have been delivering their all-important neighbourhood pop-up visits and Gateway2You sessions: the pop-up this week was in Preston city centre on Thursday, and the G2Y was on Monday at St Matthew’s Mission on Acregate Lane (east Preston).

    📅👀 Next week: Gateway will be coming to you on Friday 26 July, as we head out to The Hub at St Bernard’s (Elswick Road, Ashton-on-Ribble, PR2 1NT) – so if you’d like to come and see us, feel free to drop in between 11am and 1pm for a chat! It’s at the same time as their coffee morning – perfect! ☕


  • 8th - 12th July 2024

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    Where do we even begin, with this week’s round-up?!


    Let's start with news of the final handover of homes at our Savick Regeneration project, as the last of the 25 affordable-rent family homes were finished and handed over to Community Gateway. A proud day for everyone involved and we’re already hearing some lovely feedback from the new tenants!

    We held another one of our dog fouling action days on Tuesday in the Brookfield area of Preston, as our Community Engagement Officers spoke to residents in the area, handed out leaflets and free dog poo bags to try and reduce dog fouling in the area. Great work guys! We won’t use the emoji either…... 💩💩 oops, too late! 🐶🐕🐕‍🦺🐩 please pick up your dog mess folks!


    Thank you to all the tenants that came out on Wednesday night – the evening of the England/Netherlands semi-final, no less, what dedication! – to attend our Spotlight Session all about our Investment Programme and Safety Checks. Thanks for your input at the session and we hope you agree that we have an ambitious, forward-thinking plan for future investment and a firm commitment on tenant safety.

    Colleagues from our Tenancy Management Team were joined by local neighbourhood policing officers in Deepdale on Wednesday for an anti-social behaviour pop-up, speaking to residents and businesses in the area to talk about the current ASB issues they’re experiencing, and how to report them.


    We also delivered a Gateway2You session at City Church on Thursday, before dropping in on the Swap Shop at St Matthew’s Mission.

    A busy week but that’s how we like it!


  • 1st - 5th July 2024

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    June was the ‘Month of Community’ and our tenants and teams got involved in loads of activities that celebrate community togetherness and reduce social isolation and loneliness.


    During Loneliness Awareness Week (10-14 June), our residents enjoyed a special event at Ingol Library to encourage people to socialise and get to know one another, while tenants at The Courtyards loved their Regenerage coffee morning. Engagement officers also popped into the Knit & Natter at Ribbleton Library: it was great to see everyone smiling and enjoying each other’s company, which is what it’s all about!

    The following week, we brought you a lovely story about Bernard, Mira, Patrick, Stewart and Geoff – tenants at Astley Court – who have taken the initiative to set up their own games afternoon in the shared lounge. They all agreed that a brew and game of dominoes together is loads more fun than watching TV alone in their flats. Meanwhile, SHAPE Lancashire ran another fantastic games afternoon for residents at Windsor Court, and we also saw The Atrium host their first ever coffee morning for its new tenants! There was also a huge celebration over at The Courtyards for the King’s Birthday! The Beanstalk Food and Cookery air fryer course was also a smash hit, as was the lovely sun-soaked fun day at The Courtyards (not sure the sun has been seen since!).


  • 24th - 28th June 2024

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    What a week we’ve had! It’s been non-stop for our teams and it’s been brilliant to see so many of you.


    Gateway2You sessions at Ribbleton Family Hub, St Mary Magdalene’s Parish Hall, and Preston Community Hub have seen us talking to tenants out in their communities about the issues that matter most to them – which this week has included allocations and Select Move queries.

    Gateway runs 14 independent living schemes in total and two of them have enjoyed games sessions this week, with residents at The Courtyards enjoying the warm weather with ice creams and games of skittles and darts, while dominoes and bingo were the activities of choice for our residents at Bay Tree Farm.


    At the final session of the Beanstalk Food and Cookery air fryer course, tenants made loaded potatoes and shortbread biscuits – delicious! We hope everyone who’s completed the course now leaves with lots of new cooking skills which they’ll be able to use with their brand-new air fryer.

    On Thursday evening, we held an important focus group with tenants here at our Harbour House headquarters: the topic was ‘Community Safety’ and our Tenancy Services Manager delivered a ‘Spotlight Session’ to take an in-depth look at all the various issues and elements of community safety.


    Finally, we made some crucial donations of school uniform to the Ascension Church School Uniform Store – and you’ll also see photos below in the collage of some fabulous Moor Nook gardens we spotted during our pop-up visits to tenants in the area.


  • 17th - 21st June 2024

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    What have our teams been doing for tenants this week?


    We've helped residents at our extra care schemes make good use of their communal lounges – with a birthday celebration for King Charles III held at The Courtyards, and the first ever coffee morning for residents at the newly-opened Atrium.

    Over at our homeless prevention scheme, The Spires, we opened the floor up to residents to see how we could improve the way things work at the centre.

    Our engagement officers visited Brookfield on Wednesday, and then Ingol on Thursday, where we couldn’t help but notice lots of you are really keeping on top of your gardening!


    We also brought Gateway2You in Blackpool on Tuesday, and Preston on Monday. Thanks for taking the time to come and see us!

    The popular Beanstalk Food and Cookery air fryer course (supported by our Community Fund) continued at Galloway Hall, while we also dropped in on Windsor Court independent living scheme on Thursday for a spot of bingo – working in partnership with SHAPE Lancashire!


  • 10th - 14th June 2024

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    A jam-packed week for Community Gateway finished with a flourish today as we welcomed to Moor Nook Allotments the Mayor of Preston to meet some fantastic young people from The Prince’s Trust who’ve been doing some excellent restorative work on the allotments and at Bleasdale Street East Community Garden.


    We’d like to say a massive thank-you to Let's Grow Preston and Holland House Garden Centre who kindly donated all of the plants which is amazing and a big boost to the project!

    Elsewhere in Preston, our Gateway2You session in Ashton on Wednesday was a great opportunity to chat to residents and listen to their feedback – as was the pop-up we did in Ingol the day before, getting tenants' views on how they would like to have their voice heard.


    Meanwhile, the Air Fryer Cookery Course on Thursdays at Galloway Hall in Fulwood continues to teach our tenants how to make healthy, low-cost meals.

    As if that wasn’t enough, we also visited an orchard in Lea to scout out what could be a potential tree-planting site; and we presented a gift voucher to the winner of the Select Move Survey Prize Draw.


    Don’t forget: we have another prize draw open at the moment for everyone who completes the Community Engagement Framework Consultation here: https://tinyurl.com/ytyph48s.

    Have a lovely weekend everyone!