Our Community Street and Getting Involved!

Below is the number of residents we engaged with and how from October 2024 — January 2025... let us know what you would like to see more of!

Number of tenants engaged with from April 2024 - September 2024, with a total of 883

  • Wider Community projects (190 residents) - Working with our tenants on gardening and art projects in our hostels and around our estates. Including Estate days, and summer parties, often held in partnership with other local organisations.
    • There are also activities taking place usually during the school holidays, providing children with a meal and something to do whilst school is closed.
  • Sheltered Housing Activities (117 residents) - These are activities which take place in our Sheltered Housing Schemes such as falls prevention classes and COPD workshops.
  • Temporary Accommodation Projects (108 residents) — These take place in our Temporary Accommodations where there are often lots of young children, the projects provide them with activities to participate in after school or during the school holidays.
  • Coffee mornings / Resident Meetings (154 residents) - To support tenants in setting up resident associations, work with established groups to represent residents views and concerns, encourage and promote community spirit.
    • Resident Associations are made up of a group of residents who wish to make a difference in their area. They hold regular meetings with their neighbours and invite guest speakers to attend including officers from South Essex Homes.
  • Digital Project (4 residents) - Meeting with Sheltered Housing residents to help them get online and learn to use technology
  • Hubs and Drop Ins (27 residents) — An opportunity for residents to speak with their Tenancy Services Officers on their estate, to gain advice and signposting to helpful organisations.
  • Focus Groups (15 residents) — Giving tenants the opportunity to have a say in service delivery and voice their opinion, to ensure that the right people receive feedback from tenants and can adjust plans accordingly.

We engaged with a total of 615 residents between October 2024 and January 2025!

Ways to get Involved

South Essex Homes are keen to involve residents in the work we do and actively encourage residents' input. There are various different ways that you can play your part in shaping the future of your local community.

You can click here to view our new document: South Essex Homes’ Residents Charter: Our Engagement Strategy

There are real benefits of being involved in our work including:

  • Making a difference in the services we provide
  • Learning new skills – we can provide great training
  • Improving your career chances and enhancing your CV by getting new experiences that employers are looking for
  • Meeting new people
  • Making your community a better place to live. 

If you have any questions or want to express an interest in getting involved then our Resident Engagement team would be delighted to hear from you. You can contact the team on 0800 833 160 or email residentengagement@seh.southend.gov.uk 

Could you be an Armchair Supporter?

Busy with work? Hectic home life? Limited free time?

Please be an Armchair Supporter

We manage housing for thousands of busy families in Southend so we understand that your free time is limited and precious. Unfortunately households like yours are often under-represented so we don’t always get to hear your views as much as we’d like to.

What can you do?

Please ‘like’ our Facebook page and follow our Twitter and Instagram accounts.  You’ll then be able to follow our posts when you sit down and scroll your socials at the end of a busy day and can comment and share them in order to help our message reach as wide an audience as possible.  We put all kinds of information on these pages – from latest news and events to our current job vacancies, so they’re well worth a look.

Join the Resident Advisory Panel to take part in surveys and help shape housing services, find out more about this here: Resident Advisory Panel | South Essex Homes

Talk to us!  If you have an issue, let us know because if you don’t tell us, we may not know about it.  That way, we have a good chance of being able to put it right.  You can find out who your Tenancy Services Officer is and how to contact them here Tenancy Services Officers | South Essex Homes

Be a good neighbour – as much as we’d like to, we can’t be there to look out for everyone all of the time.  Please look out for your neighbours and check in on them if you can, especially if they live alone.  If you are concerned about anyone, please let us know or call 999 in an emergency.

 

Facebook – search for our pages ‘South Essex Homes’, and ‘South Essex Property Services’ 

Twitter - @SouthEssexHomes

Instagram – southessexhomes

Could you represent your community?

Want to help your local neighbourhood but lead a busy life?

Please be a Neighbourhood Helper

You may be fired up about a particular issue in your neighbourhood and want to help resolve the problems that particularly affect your street or block.  If you feel strong enough about it to give a bit of free time but are conscious that it has to fit in around your busy lifestyle and other commitments, there are things you can do.

What can you do?

Consider becoming a Resident Representative. Previously known as ‘Street Voices’ or ‘Block Voices’, Resident Reps do just that – they gather the views of all residents (at a time and in a way that suits them) and then speak to us at South Essex Homes on behalf of your neighbourhood to represent their collective views, highlight issues and suggest solutions to problems.

If there is a specific issue that needs addressing in your estate, you could set up an Action Group to tackle it.  We can help you to join forces with neighbours and arrange meetings to discuss ways to overcome the issue.  Or to target general issues on an ongoing basis, you could make it more formal by setting up a Residents Association if one doesn’t already exist where you live – we can help you do this too.

Could you be a Community Champion?

Could you be a Community Champion?

Are you twiddling your thumbs at home, looking for a new challenge?  
Are you passionate about a particular issue that affects the Southend community? Do you find yourself with a bit of time on your hands and the willingness to really make a difference, but don’t have a clue where to start?

Please be a Community Champion

What can you do?

  • Volunteer to help support a community project.  We are involved in the running of a number of initiatives across the town including community Hubs, food banks, youth involvement projects, gardening and healthy living projects.  They are always happy for extra pairs of hands to help them!
  • Join a Focus Group.  We operate a number of Focus Groups who meet to discuss various aspects of the work South Essex Homes does to manage and maintain social housing in Southend.  If you are interested in the way our business is run and would like to have your say, new members are always welcomed. Find out more about our focus groups here: Focus Groups | South Essex Homes
  • Join the Resident Scrutiny Forum.  This is a group of residents who pick an area of our business and thoroughly scrutinise it.  They then make recommendations on what we can do to improve things to improve the service for residents and maximise value for money. Find out more here: Resident Scrutiny Forum | South Essex Homes
  • Become a Tenant Board Member!  3 out of the 11 people on our Board of Directors are our tenants.  Look out for vacancies for these positions and really have a direct say in the running of the company.

Inclusion, equality, overcoming barriers

The resident engagement commitments outlined in our strategy are aimed at giving all our residents a fair and equal opportunity to get involved. To enable residents to be actively engaged and involved with us, we will address potential barriers to engagement by:

  • Paying travel expenses and arranging travel if necessary.
  • Paying childcare and carer costs.
  • Providing information in alternative formats and languages.
  • Accommodating additional support required by residents to participate in engagement activities.
  • Lending or providing IT equipment when required.
  • Providing training and support so that customers can develop and enhance their skills and knowledge.
  • Offering a wide variety of audio, visual and written engagement opportunities.
  • Promoting digital inclusion and digital confidence.
  • Considering the offer of mentoring and peer support.