Sketty Park Online (Digital Inclusion)

Digital Technology and the Internet connects people to information and advice, to new and better jobs, to government and corporate services, to savings, price comparisons and ultimately to each other. Sketty Park Online aims to convince the community to work together to inspire, encourage and support as many people as possible to get online.

For many organisations and public bodies, the use of technology is becoming increasingly important in service delivery and communication.

However, not everyone has the access, skills or motivation to make use of digital technology. And crucially, it is those already at a social or financial disadvantage who are most likely to be the people who can’t, won’t or don’t use computers and the internet.

The Sketty Park Online Project is a partnership formed by Coastal Housing and five other organisations. It has been designed to help provide learning opportunities and IT resources within the local Sketty Park community. We have a large amount of housing stock within the Sketty Park area, and social landlords have become an integral part of digital inclusion strategies. With nearly a third of the entire “offline population” living in social housing, landlords can play a key role in reaching and engaging the digitally excluded.

We currently offer free workshops and drop-in sessions at six different venues within the Sketty Park area. 

The question is not whether we can get a computer into everyone’s home. It's whether communities can make use of the learning resources already available to become digitally included and involved.

Our sessions are not just about word processing and typing, but blogging and tweeting - not written tests and examinations, but community collaboration in a familiar environment.

We are also offering opportunities for the community to help with volunteering on the project.

Opportunities to develop new skills, meet new people, learn new things and hopefully have fun doing it. Volunteering is a great way to get more experience, put existing skills to good use, improve your CV or simply try new things.

Another specific goal is reaching older people who lack internet and computer skills. This demographic is a major concern because 5.7 million of the ageing population are currently offline, and they have as much, if not more, to gain from access to the internet as the rest of society.

Introducing older people to the online world can help with social inclusion by enriching quality of life. This can also allow industries, charities and the government to deal with our ageing population in a more progressive way.

Within Sketty Park we have already seen first-hand enjoyment that the internet and technology can bring to older people. There are clear advantages with better contact with friends and family and increased independence. Cost savings, access to goods and increased services are also persuasive to many people in the current financial climate.

We will be continuing to run workshops throughout the next year and will be offering sessions in the following subject areas:

• Digital Photography

• Accessing the Internet

• Skype

• Email

• Family History

• Digital Storytelling

• Mobile Phones

• Tablet Computing

• Shopping and Banking Online

• Job Searching

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Word Processing

• Internet Safety

• Publishing

• Website Design

• Community Journalism

Link in to our new blog at www.skettyparkonline.co.uk

Coastal Housing Job Club (Neath)

Are you a Coastal Housing tenant living in Neath and would like help and support on using the internet to find work?  

If so, we’d like to invite you to attend our Coastal Housing Job Club on Monday 23/01/12 11.00 - 13.00 at Melyn Community Centre 

Coastal are working with Kristian Jordan, Neath & Briton Ferry Digital Inclusion Coordinator. We have access to a training room with a number of PC’s. The aim of the course is to assist with job hunting on the internet, preparation of CV’s and general job hunting advice. We also have close ties with a local recruitment agency.

If you’d like any more information please contact Andrew Baker at Coastal Housing on 01792 479200.

Housing Benefit Reform

The Government is proposing a radical change to welfare benefits. Part of the changes will affect how housing benefit is paid and the amount of housing benefit that some tenants will receive.

There is widespread concern about the impact these proposals will have on social housing tenants. If they are implemented as proposed, then there will be huge consequences. Some of the poorest families will be made poorer if they wish to carry on living in their communities. Or they may be forced to move away from their friends and neighbours. From the housing association perspective, we would expect to see a significant rise in rent arrears, evictions and increased costs in transferring tenants, who ask to move to smaller properties.

There is a considerable effort being made to fight these proposals - and we will keep you informed of developments as they become known to us.

Universal credit

Currently, tenants who receive housing benefit can opt to have the benefit paid directly to the housing association. The Government is proposing that from April 2013, Housing Benefit will be paid directly to new claimants and it will be phased-in for existing claimants by 2016

Under-occupation

The Government is proposing to reduce Housing Benefit for working age tenants in social housing who are underoccupying their homes from April 2013. The government’s reasons for this is to reduce the overall housing benefit bill; make better use of the social housing stock; and improve work incentives for

working age tenants.

Currently, tenants in the private rented sector have their benefit restricted if they are deemed to have too many bedrooms for their needs and it is proposed to apply the same criteria to social housing tenants, like those

of Coastal.

Who will be affected?

• Single working age HB claimants living alone in two (or more) bedroomed properties (even where a second bedroom is needed due to access to children);
• Couples living alone in two (or more) bedroom properties (even where the second bedroom is needed due to disability where there is no outside care, or for grandchildren);
• Families in three (or more) bedroomed accommodation where children could be deemed to share a bedroom i.e. two same gender children aged under 16, or two aged under 10 regardless of gender; and
• Families with foster children will also be affected as foster children are not considered to be part of the claimant’s ‘household’ for the size criteria.

An example of the effect is:

A family including a boy aged nine and a girl aged six will be expected to live in a two-bedroomed property. Similarly, a family with two boys aged 15 and 13 will alsobe expected to live in a twobedroomed property.

We think that the Government will regard ‘working age’ as being the same as the Pension Credit age, which will be 61 years and 6 months in April 2013. This means that any tenant younger than that and receiving housing benefit will have the payment reduced if they underoccupy their accommodation.

How much will the reduction be?

We do not know how the reduction will be calculated, although it looks likely to be on the basis of a fixed percentage for every bedroom that is deemed not to be needed. Again we are uncertain about the actual percentage, but it is speculated that it could be 10% or 15% for every spare bedroom.

What this would mean is that a single person living in a two bedroomed flat where the rent is £80 per week, would have his or her benefit reduced by £8.00 - £12.00. For a couple living in a three bedroomed house where the rent is £90 per week the reduction could be between £18.00 - £27.00 per week.

The Government’s view is that tenants receiving housing benefit who are deemed to under-occupy should either make up the shortfall, which for many on benefits is not possible, or move to smaller accommodation more appropriate to their perceived needs.

If you are concerned about anything you have read in this article and would like to discuss it, please speak directly to your Housing Officer or contact Coastal Housing on 01792 479200.

What is the Social Circle?

Coastal Housing Group Ltd has over 500 members of the social group throughout Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot. Some social group members meet regularly at our coffee mornings which are held on the 1st Wednesday of every month at a venue in Swansea (usually 10am - 12pm)

Members of the social circle also enjoy regular day trips and other events which have included:

• Abergavenny Market
• Gower walk and lunch
• Trip to Ffos Las racecourse
• Trip to St Fagans with lunch included
• Trip to Cadbury World
• Trip to Cwmcerrig Farm Shop & Gwili Valley Railway
• Porthcawl Tea Dance
• 3 course christmas lunch at The Marriott Hotel
• Christmas shopping trip to Gloucester

Please call the Solutions Team in Coastal Housing for a full list of events and to join the social circle which offers FREE MEMBERSHIP, on 01792 479266

Please note that the Social Circle is for tenants aged over 55.

The next coffee meeting in Swansea will be on Wednesday 1st Aug at The Grand Hotel between 10am and 12pm.  (All Swansea meetings take place on the 1st Wednesday of every month)

Next meeting for the Neath area will be on Thursday 2nd August in Presidents between 10am and 11.30am.  All Neath meetings take place on the 1st Thursday every month)

Development Updates - £25m Urban Village

The Urban Village is helping to regenerate the area, provide affordable homes, create jobs, and provide a leisure and work destination that people will want to be a part of.

The Urban Village is providing a new look retail frontage for Swansea High Street. As a previously unused part of High Street and the Strand, the regeneration is breathing new life into the area. The ‘Village’ designed by architects, Holder Mathias, will provide a series of courtyard spaces and link offices, shops, residential apartments and retail food and drink outlets. The aim is to create a destination experience - a place where people will want to shop, eat and work.

The Village also incorporates a Creative Hub. The Swansea Creative Hub will be the first of its kind in Wales, an office block specifically for use by commercial creative businesses, it allows the creative supply chain to be situated in one place in a dedicated commercial and supportive environment.

The idea is that people working in a wide range of creative industries such as advertising, marketing, video games, music, publishing, design, etc will be interested in taking up the spaces.

Ultimately it will help establish a dynamic, colourful and exciting place to work, live and shop. The apartments are built over 10 floors on top of a three storey multi-storey car park. Built to a code four sustainability standard, all apartments will benefit from well designed and spacious living accommodation. Designed to lifetime home standards they include modern kitchen living combined areas and fully fitted spacious bathrooms, with compact shower cubicles.

With the added bonus of integral balconies, due to their location and height of the apartments, many of the residents will be able to enjoy commanding views across the City and beyond. Services provided to the apartment will include a caretaker, remote door entry and CCTV. And, the apartments will literally be breaking ground with their Community Garden Allotments, which residents will be able to work and cultivate.

Preference for the apartments will be given to applicants who meet the criteria under our allocations policy for City Living. The policy is aimed at encouraging people who already work in the area, to live in it as well, thereby generating more interest in the area and making it a more vibrant and interesting place to work and live.

And that’s not all...

Over the five years of its development, around 320 jobs in the construction industry will have been generated. On its completion, the Urban Village itself is expected to see around 426 full and part-time jobs.

£25m Urban Village

• 76 two bed apartments for City Living.

• Commercial/Retail/Office

• Space/Creative Cluster

• Architect: Holder Mathias

www.holdermathias.com

• Planning: Nathanial Lichfield and

Partners: www.nlpplanning.com

• Engineer: Bingham Hall

• Contractor: Mi-Space (Midas Group) www.mispaceuk.com

• Consultant: SCP

• Contract: £6,625,000

Phase One - 52 weeks

High Street Streetscape

Quality commercial/office space.

Completion: February 2012

Phase Two - 68 weeks

• 76 Apartments

- 66 x two bedroom

- 10 x fully adapted

Completion: June/July 2012

Phase Three

Creative cluster building and warehouse

refurbishment, starting Autumn 2011.

Additional Publicity/Adverts

Swansea Creative Hub

Flexible space

Flexible rent

Flexible lease

Huw@swanseacreativehub.com

Call Huw: 07721 375883

http://www.urbanvillageswansea.co.uk/

(All information taking from HomeFront Winter Edition 2011/2012)

Development Updates - Baron's Court

Baron’s Court, (Former Baron’s Nightclub), College Street, Swansea

The apartments have an open-plan kitchen/living room arrangement. The location of Baron’s Court is ideal for people who are working in the City Centre. The scheme also includes nine fully-adapted properties.

Baron’s Nightclub was a well known landmark to many in the City over the age of 40 and its regeneration has been welcomed. The scheme is a mix of refurbished and rehabilitation of the original building with a newer wing built above the original nightclub. The apartments comprise of 16 contained within the existing framework and the remainder built over four newly constructed floors.

There is no parking at this site, but it is hoped that this will encourage people to use alternative transport options. New residents are also welcome to take advance of Coastal Housing’s ‘City Wheels Car Club’.

• Total Cost : £3M

• 32 Apartments

- 10 x two bedroom apartments

- 22 x one bedroom apartments

• Contractor: Mi-Space

• Architect: Dewi Evans

• Engineers: Clarke Bond

• Cost Consultant: SCP

Coastal Housing using Social Media

‘Find us on Facebook’, ‘Follow us on Twitter’ and ‘I’ll Facebook you’, have become common phrases used in our day-to-day lives.

Social Media has now become part of everyday life and there is nowhere to hide! With more than 800 million active users on Facebook and over 300 million tweets being sent every day, we’ve decided to get involved and have started using Social Media to communicate with our tenants


We launched our Facebook page at the AGM back in September, with the help of local Social Media Coach Natalie Reynolds (www.natreynolds.co.uk).

Natalie has helped us understand the benefits of using Facebook and Twitter to communicate important and interesting messages to our tenants.

Similar to HomeFront, we will be using Facebook & Twitter to send out regular updates, including the latest on our developments, photos from the social circle events, services and important local information, such as changes in waste collections, snow closures etc.

We’ve had a great response from our tenants so far, with a range of people ‘liking’ our page proving that it’s not just for the ‘youngsters’ - Come and join us at:
www.facebook.com/CoastalHousing
www.twitter.com/CoastalHousing

Even if you don’t have an account on Facebook you’ll still be able to see the latest updates! We’d love to hear what you’d like to see on our Facebook page!

Here are some Top Tips to stay safe on Facebook:

• Don’t put your personal information on your Facebook profile

Edit your profile to limit the amount of information you display on your profile, to prevent identity fraud. These include your birthday, address and phone number.

• Be careful when posting photographs of you or your children on Facebook

Ensure you visit your Privacy Settings to restrict what visitors who are not your friends can see. It is advisable to set all of your settings to ‘Friends Only’.

•   Don’t accept all Friend Requests
  If you do not know someone who has sent you a friend request, then do not accept it, as unfortunately some profiles are fake or people have a hidden agenda. When you accept a friend request, you are allowing them to see your personal information, pictures and updates.
  
  
  • Watch out for friends tagging photos of you
  All sorts of photos get posted to Facebook including those you wouldn’t want your colleagues or
  family to see. Either change your privacy settings so that you have to approve the tag or imediately remove the tag.
  
  
  • Be cautious about what you write on your wall
  Without realising it you may not only be telling your ‘trusted’ friends that you’ll be taking your two weeks holiday. If this information gets into the wrong hands you could have an unwanted visitor whilst you’re away. If your friends are people that you know and trust, then this shouldn’t be an issue.
  
  
  • Make sure you log out from your account
  If you’re accessing your Facebook account in a public place, make sure you log out as someone may find it funny to post an update pretending to be you, which could get you into
  trouble!
  •  Report any form of bullying or abuse
  If you see any form of hate speech, threats, graphic violence, bullying or spam you should report it immediately to Facebook.
  Here are steps that you can take:
  • Unfriend the person to remove them from your friend list
  • Block the person from contacting you
  • Report the person if their behaviour is abusive
  • Review your privacy settings
  For more information about Safety on Facebook, visit: www.facebook.com/help/safety where there are also some useful resources for parents.
  
  
  
  
  

Welcome!

Welcome to the Coastal Housing blog!

We'll be posting information on here for everyone to read including articles from our Home Front magazine and blogs from staff!