Community Development

Broxbourne Housing Association is an active partner in the Broxbourne Local Strategic Partnership.

The Broxbourne Community Plan has been developed by the local strategic partnership (LSP) which is made up of voluntary and statutory section agencies, including:-

Broxbourne Borough Council
Hertfordshire Police
Primary Care Trust
Hertfordshire County Council
Broxbourne and East Herts CVS
Broxbourne CAB
Broxbourne Housing Association (also representing other RSL's)

The partnership has developed eight key themes for areas identified to develop a range of new and improved services to meet identified needs. We have built our programme around the key themes:

1. Active and Healthy

We will seek to enable and enhance opportunities for our residents to participate in activities and events aimed at improving health and wellbeing. These will include:-

• Targetted programmes for older residents via our network of retirement housing schemes.
• Subsidised leisure activities e.g. free swims, local youth club events.

2. Safe and Secure

We recognise that fear of crime and concerns over "youngsters hanging around" is a material concern of our residents (STATUS survey 2008) and the wider community (Broxbourne Borough Council MORI Poll 2006). Our activities are, therefore, focused on the prevention of anti-social behaviour as and where it occurs, but of equal importance, in developing a programme of diversionary activities and family support. These will include:-

• Parenting support
• Access to play, sport and leisure opportunities
• School holiday schemes
• Improvements to our estates to "design out" the opportunity for anti-social behaviour identified by our residents.

3. Young People

We will work in partnership with relevant agencies to offer support to young people living in our homes. Initiatives will include:-

• Participation in the evolving network of children's centers and related services.
• Support to the Home-Start family support service.
• Support for homework/breakfast clubs.
• Apprenticeships and access to work opportunities and mentoring.

4. Prosperity for all

We believe that we should pro actively work in partnership to improve the life chances and quality of life for our residents. As such our strategy sets out the measures we will progress to improve financial inclusion.

We will work to:-

• develop a preventative approach
• develop access to suitable financial services/products for people on low incomes
• provide encouragement to take up the initiatives
• develop our ability to address these issues effectively

These initiatives will include:-

• Ongoing training for front line housing officers to offer help and advice to residents in financial difficulties, including referral mechanisms to appropriate specialist support.
• Commissioning specialist debt and money advice services for our residents via Broxbourne Citizens Advice Bureau.(4b)
• Ensuring that our residents are claiming their housing benefit and any other benefits that they are entitled to, including specific assistance and advice when signing up new tenants.
• Offering residents a financial health check before they take up a shared ownership occupancy.
• Assisting residents, especially vulnerable people, and help them with forms and procedures. This support to be on request and targetted at those in financial difficulties and on a progressed basis via a home visit 6 weeks after the commencement of each new tenancy, and then on an annual basis after that.
• Promoting affordable contents insurance provided via the National Housing Federation to all new tenants and periodically to our existing residents.
• Providing financial and development support to enable the establishment of a local credit union in partnership with other agencies.( 4d)
• Developing partnerships with our bank and other financial institutions to offer basic financial services to our residents.
• Supporting and funding initiatives that provide our residents and their families with pathways to further education and training and access to apprenticeships and jobs.(4c)
• Supporting the Broxbourne Furniture Store to provide recycled furniture to our existing / new residents on low incomes.(8f)

Many of these initiatives are part of our core tenancy services "offer" to residents, but we recognise that many of our residents will require targetted and focused support, which we will make available as a range of flexible accessible options in partnership with our statutory and voluntary sector partners. Where identified initiatives feature within the current version of this strategic action plan they are indicated with a reference number.

5. Places to Live

Our Business Plan sets out our strong commitment to developing new affordable homes in sustainable settings. We recognise the high levels of housing need locally and will work to ensure that our stock of homes will grow and improve. Our asset management strategy will drive this policy aim and target our investment effectively and efficiently.

6. On the Move

Transport issues can be a barrier to participation for residents on low incomes. We will offer support and assistance with travel costs to enable residents to participate in events that we organise.

7. Cleaner and Greener

Alongside the creation of sustainable communities we will work to ensure environmental sustainability. This will include:-

• Environmental measures built into our improvement and repair programmes.
• Actions to reduce energy consumption and fuel costs for our residents, such as cavity wall insulation, condensing boilers.
• Measures to reduce water consumption such as free water pumps, dual flush wc's and spray taps.

8. Stronger Neighbourhoods - Stronger Communities

We recognise that partnership working is central to achieving our goals. We can bring the knowledge of the needs and aspirations of our residents supported by funding to support programme development, and community cohesion. Our resident involvement strategy seeks to ensure that our residents have the opportunity to establish their own networks and groups, and proactively shape the development of the services they receive.

We recognise that the networks and communities of interest available to our residents may not be specifically focused just on our residents. We will, therefore, work to support and develop work in partnership with the voluntary sector via the local Council for Voluntary Service. Initiatives will include:-

• Support in development of local resident groups.
• Support to develop the local ethnic minority forum.
• Provision of access to PC's and web based services to older people living in and around our network of retirement housing schemes.
• Support to the community leadership project encouraging and empowering residents to participate in the inter-agency group leading on service improvements in the Waltham Cross area.

In embracing these key areas in our strategy, we recognise again the benefits to our residents and also to our business in taking forward a range of measures that ensure that Broxbourne Housing Association homes are safe, affordable and pleasant places in which to live. Our focus will be on the needs of existing residents, but will be alive to changing needs and aspirations of future generations.

• Working in partnership - our role within the local strategic partnership reflects our aim to be a key player in ensuring that our residents' views and needs are built into programmes of activity. We will develop our relationship with the Borough Council in relation to the common housing register and choice based lettings.
• Investing in cohesion - our business plan allocates substantial resources to the improvement of existing homes and environments, and the provision of new affordable homes to meet local needs.
• Where appropriate, we will work with other local stakeholders to explain the purposes of refurbishment, regeneration or development programmes.

Better homes, better communities

The Association has made a positive start in progressing a broad range of community development initiatives. We will continue to build on our partnerships with local agencies and develop meaningful relationships with our residents, seeking to work towards a common goal.

Download BHA Service Standards - (PDF Document)