Tenants gather for Dumfries & Galloway Housing Partnership conference

TPAS Scotland chief executive Lesley Baird addresses the conference

Dumfries & Galloway Housing Partnership’s 2018 Tenant Conference took place last week with around 150 people in attendance at the Easterbrook Hall in Dumfries.

Tenants attended the event on Thursday from all corners of Dumfries and Galloway - from Drummore to Langholm and the feedback has been very positive. DGHP’s AGM also took place in the afternoon.

There were some prizes to be won on the day, including £100 of M&S vouchers, donated by Anglian; bed and breakfast for two at the Holiday Inn as well as tickets for a Christmas party night at the Easterbrook Hall and a “Bryan Adams” tribute night with dinner for four, kindly donated by the RAD Group’s Hetland Hall Hotel.

Throughout the day there were workshops taking place focusing on:

  • Fareshare - Food in Action - a look at how three community groups are using surplus food from supermarkets to help local people in need - Summerhill Community Centre in Dumfries, Action for Children from Kelloholm and Kate’s Kitchen in Annan all took part in a cooking show-style demonstration and had one of the biggest crowds of the day;
  • Let’s Get Active - tenants took part in some fun, chair-based exercises in a competitive manner and many said their ‘muscles ached from the laughter’;
  • Investing in your future - tenants attending were able to hear about where we are currently investing in our properties through new windows and roofing and render as well as hearing about plans for new-build homes in Dumfries and Galloway;
  • Creating the customer experience of the future - attendees took part in a large-scale board game where decisions had to be made about how they contact DGHP in an informative session aimed at looking at the future of digital and the customer journey;
  • Police Scotland - ‘Keeping safe online and on the phone’ - another well attended session where Police Scotland and O2 spoke about the many complex scams to look out for over the telephone and email;
  • “I’ve always wanted to try that” - many people chose to ‘drop-in’ to this interactive workshop. In that session there were many activities available to try your hand at, including - knitting, photography; card-making; flower arranging and much more.
  • Throughout the day DGHP welfare benefit advisors were on-hand to have appointments with anyone looking for a benefit health check to see if they were receiving all the benefits they are entitled to.

    A special thank you was extended to the tenant working group who helped put the event together, all of whom are volunteers. Thanks to Robert Kerr, from Dumfries; Eddie Atkinson, from Port William; Diane Currie, from Annan; Robert Hood, from Dumfries; Rab Davidson, from Dalbeattie and Jim Kennedy, from Kirkcudbright.

    Thank also went to all of the exhibitors on the day including Home Energy Scotland, Solway Credit Union, DGHP contractors, Job Centre Plus, Thistle Insurance, Citizens Advice Bureau and many more.

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