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Q.Why get involved
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A.
You can influence how we provide services to
you and your community by feeding back to us, either individually
or as part of a group. You’ll get an insight into how we work and
will meet other interested residents. You can gain skills which
will be useful in other areas of life (e.g. organising events,
mystery shopping, producing newsletters).
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Q.It will take up loads of my time won't it?
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A.
Not necessarily! Our leaflet Your Say Your Way
tells you about ways you can get involved which aren’t time
consuming, such as surveys or questionnaires, attending the
occasional focus group or feeding back as an individual. The
activities marked with one star do not take up much time if you’re
busy.
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Q.Won't all those fares to meetings cost me a lot?
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A.
We will reimburse you for travel if you
provide a ticket or receipt. We’ll cover the cost of an overnight
stay if, in order to attend a meeting, you have to leave home
before 6am or will return home after 10pm. We’ll also cover carers’
costs if you have to get a paid carer to cover for you. Please
contact the Resident Involvement
Officer for your area for more information.
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Q.I can't get to meetings, but would still like to get involved.
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A.
There are lots of ways you can get involved
without having to attend meetings. Our leaflet Your Say Your Way
will give you some ideas, including surveys and questionnaires,
individual feedback, being a neighbourhood voice, taking part in
estate walkabouts, and mystery shopping.
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Q.Will it make any difference?
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A.
Yes. Some of the ways residents have made a
difference are recounted in our Impact Assessment, from ideas for
estate improvements, to inputting into our new residents’ handbook
to influencing our standard design for new developments.
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Q.I'd like to get involved locally, with people from my own neighbourhood
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A.
There are several ways you can do this – have
a look under the ‘Local’ section in Your Say Your Way.
For example, you can become part of your local residents’
association if there is one (or you could even start one!) or you
could take part in estate walkabouts.
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Q.I'd like to influence at a high level,possibly nationally
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A.
Your Say Your Way
gives you information about how you can influence your landlord at
a national or strategic level. There are some exiting new
opportunities coming up for residents to get involved in looking at
our services in detail, known as resident scrutiny or resident-led
self regulation – we will be shaping these, in conjunction with
residents, and publicising them later in 2011.
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Q.I don't feel I know much about involvement and would like to learn more.
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A.
Affinity Sutton provides free training courses for
residents. You can become more knowledgeable and confident by
taking one of these courses. Please note we don’t set dates and
venues – we run them when there is the demand. There are also some
life skills courses you might be interested in such as first aid
and computer skills.
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Q.How does Affinity Sutton help its residents get involed
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A.
We will train interested residents and will reimburse the
reasonable cost of attending meetings and events. We have a
dedicated resident involvement
team and a budget of £240,000 in the financial year
2011-12. We will provide funding for the running costs of
recognised residents’ associations and our programme of community grants can help you or your
local group to fund activities in your area.
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Q.How do I get involved
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A.
You can either sign up online or contact your
resident involvement officer on 0300 100 0303 for further
information. Or have a closer look at our website to see if there’s
anything going on in your area.