South residents away day a big success
A fantastic day was had by all at Chevin's South Region Residents Away Day on 30th June at the Holiday Inn in Barnsley.
Around 150 residents attended the day starting out with presentations from Steve Close, Group Chief Executive, Denis Creaghan, Deputy Group Chief Executive and Caroline Grosvenor, Head of Housing. The focus of the morning session was to inform residents what Chevin has achieved over the last 12 months along with the latest housing news and how it impacts on Chevin and residents.
A digital voting session was also held giving Chevin the opportunity to find out from residents their feedback on specific services and how much they know about Chevin.
After lunch there was the opportunity for residents to have a look around the market stall area where there were lots of stands offering information along with stalls with goods for sale. Chevin staff were on hand throughout the afternoon talking to residents about various issues and giving out lots of information and services on their stands which included reinvestment/refurbishment, Rosa Homes, resident involvement, have a go on the internet, repairs and maintenance, housing and DLO have a go. There was also Fire & Rescue, Police, Mobility Aids, Thorntons, handmade cards, jewellery, bags, a lavender stall, healthy eating with 5 a day promotional freebies and fruit, clothes, homemade jams and preserves, Past-Times gifts and lots more. Southdale kindly sponsored the beautiful cupcake stand with each resident receiving a free cupcake and Bramall sponsored the voucher prizes which were drawn at the end of the day along with other prizes which were hand-made by Chevin DLO staff including a bird table and planter with flowers.
Helen Wood, Resident Involvement Officer said "We were overwhelmed by the interest from residents for this event and places were booked up very quickly. The programme for the day was led very much by feedback received from residents who had attended previous away days and conferences where residents told us that they wanted to keep the ‘business' work in the morning and have something informal in the afternoon. We were really pleased with how the day went, it was good to meet lots of new people who were attending a Chevin event for the first time. The feedback we have received so far has been excellent and people are already asking when the next event will be taking place!"
Caroline Grosvenor, Head of Housing said "Residents seemed to thoroughly enjoy the event and the comments we received on the day and afterwards were very positive. Our digital voting session allowed us to get instant feedback on a number of Chevin issues and we will be able to use this data when reviewing our services. The market place theme was a great success attracting tenants who had never been to one of our events before so it's something we will definitely look at doing again".
Photographed: Staff and residents at the healthy eating 5 a day stand.
