East Durham Homes shortlisted for three national awards

East Durham Homes has been shortlisted as a finalist in 3 categories in the TPAS Awards 2012 (Tenant Participation Advisory Service).

There were 9 categories this year and East Durham Homes entries have been shortlisted in the ‘Excellence in Equality and Diversity Award’, ‘Tenant of the Year’ and ‘Tenant/resident Liaison Officer of the Year’ categories. 

The nomination for the Excellence in Equality and Diversity Award was for the company’s ongoing development and commitment to equality and diversity.  East Durham Homes has worked with its customers and particularly special interest groups to provide truly equitable and fair access to services.

We have engaged extensively to obtain the views of the diverse communities we work in and identified potential barriers to services to enable us to develop a clear plan. Our approach sought to improve access arrangement to our buildings and services as well as improve the quality of information, the way we communicated with all our customers and the formats they required to improve their access to information.

East Durham Homes nominated one of its tenants, Dennis Gilbertson from Peterlee, as Tenant of the Year for his involvement and commitment in many aspects of housing services, including anti-social behaviour, value for money, estate management and tenancy support. 

He shows a passion to help victims of anti-social behaviour and a strong commitment to being involved in services that can improve this support.  Dennis was himself, a previous victim of anti-social behaviour, and has now been trained by Victim Support to be a volunteer to visit other victims and support them through the process.

East Durham Homes have also nominated Zoe McGrath, Resident Liaison Officer for its repairs partner Morrison, as Tenant/resident Liaison Officer of the Year for her commitment and enthusiasm when dealing with East Durham Homes customers.  Zoe covers a large area with 8,500 homes on her own. She actively visits tenants in their homes to discuss any problems and Morrison’s services.

Zoe has been involved in a number of community projects working with Officers from East Durham Homes, including Make a difference days, workshops for tenants, trade taster/training sessions for tenants, community clean up weeks and also linking into local residents groups.  Zoe always has a positive attitude no matter what she is dealing with and is always looking for different ways to involve customers.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on the 10 February 2012.

Paul Mains, East Durham Homes Assistant Chief Executive said: “To be recognised and shortlisted for three awards is a real achievement for East Durham Homes, Dennis and Zoe.  It shows that we are committed to partnership working and involving our customers to improve services, so fingers crossed for February when we find out who the winners are.”

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Document Created: 03/01/2012 11:17 , last modified: 10/01/2012 14:41