One Housing news

Our Employment and Training Team is here to support you so you can take the next steps in finding the right job or career path for you.

The ‘Cleaning Academy’ has been one of our most successful recent training and employment support projects, just ask Ivan.

Ivan was being supported by Crisis, the charity for people experiencing homelessness, when he was offered a place on one of our day courses designed to provide people with the knowledge and confidence needed to apply for and be offered work in the cleaning industry.

He successfully passed the one-day course and impressed our training team who later offered him an interview. Successful at interview, Ivan has since been working for Churchill Cleaning at the Stratford Centre.

“I was desperate to find a job, not only for the money but for my sense of self-worth,” say Ivan. “When you have experienced having no fixed abode and no job, the world feels so bleak.”

You can read more of Ivan’s story on the Churchill Group’s website.

If you would like to access the Employment and Training service, please contact us at employmentandtrainingteam@onehousing.co.uk.

Where could an apprenticeship take you?

On behalf of G15, of which we are part of, we would like to invite you to the Apprenticeship Fair on Wednesday 7 June 2023, 10am-12.10pm where you can meet employers, attend information sessions and network.

Please note the event will take place at Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London Bridge SE1 9DD.

Register today

The May 2023 issue of our Resident Newsletter has been sent to our residents via email. If you missed it, you can now read it here.

To make sure you never miss an email from us, please check your spam folder and add ask@onehousing.co.uk to your email contact list. If you use Gmail, please check the 'Promotions' tab and drag your message to the Primary tab at the top of your Gmail interface to indicate it’s important.

If you're more than ten weeks pregnant or have a child under four, you could be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk via the NHS Healthy Start Scheme.

What is the healthy start scheme?

Healthy Start is a UK-wide government scheme that provides a prepaid cards for eligible applicants that you can use at local shops to buy milk, infant formula, and fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables. Healthy Start can also help you receive free vitamins if you're pregnant or breastfeeding and for your children if they're between six months to four years old.

Who's eligible for the scheme?

You can apply for the scheme if you're at least ten weeks pregnant, or have at least one child under four years old, and are receiving any of the following benefits:

• Child Tax Credit (only if your family’s annual income is £16,190 or less).
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance.
• Income Support.
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance.
• Pension Credit (which includes the child addition).
• Universal Credit (only if your family’s take-home pay is £408 or less per month from employment).
• Working Tax Credit (only if your family is receiving the 4 week ‘run on’ payment).

If you're under-18 and pregnant, you'll qualify for the scheme regardless of whether you receive benefits.

If you have any questions about eligibility, the NHS website can help you learn more.

Residents living in Islington, you may be able to claim £250 towards your rent today. But hurry - this offer is first-come, first-served, and conditions apply. Find out more at: Cost of living support email sign up | Islington Council

One Academy’s new ‘Back into Work’ courses start 16 May at the Arlington Centre, Camden Town. With sessions on CV writing, interview preparation, building resilience, plus a jobs fair. Open to all, but you must register. Contact Shirley Miller on smiller@onehousing.co.uk

Join us in celebrating 75 years since Windrush by sharing your stories with us

Thursday 22 June is Windrush Day, and it’s a rather special one this year – it’s 75 years since that famous voyage when a ship by the name of Windrush first brought hundreds of immigrants from the Caribbean to the UK.

If the Windrush story is your family’s story, we would like to hear your experiences. Your favourite stories, photos, memories and reflections could form part of the exhibition we are putting together to raise awareness and celebrate the positive contributions made by Commonwealth citizens.

If you would like to share your story, please contact Damilare Amodu at damodu@onehousing.co.uk.

Would you like to start your career in construction?

We’ve partnered with Learning Curve to offer a 5-day CSCS (Construction) course which will take place from Monday 24 April until Friday 28 April 2023, 10am – 4pm.

Everyone that fully completes the course and passes their health and safety test will have the costs of their CSCS labourers’ green card covered and an interview with an employer.

Travel expenses will be covered for all attendees and lunch will be provided each day.

To be eligible you need to be

• Unemployed or if working earning below £21,547 per year.

• Have been resident in the UK or EU for the last 3 years.

• Able to provide proof of your right to work in the UK, preferably photo ID.

• Able to provide proof of address dated within 3 months of course start date.

• Able to provide proof of income (proof of benefits or salary).

• Available every day of the course.

Please note that the course will take place at Hexagon Housing offices: 130 Sydenham Rd, London SE26 5JY. All participants will need to attend a registration session on Tuesday 18 April 2023, 10am – 12pm to enrol for this course.

To express an interest, please contact Natasha Chin at employmentandtrainingteam@onehousinggroup.co.uk.

We just wanted to share with you some of the beautiful, spring-inspired craft work that residents of our care and support projects have been producing recently. Such a creative lot!

In December 2021, One Housing became part of The Riverside Group and in November 2022 we announced our intention to accelerate our legal integration through a process known as a Transfer of Engagements.

Following consultation with One Housing residents and approval from the One Housing and Riverside Boards and One Housing shareholders, the Transfer of Engagements is now complete.

As of 1^st April 2023, Riverside has become the legal landlord of previous One Housing residents and the legal employer of staff at One Housing, with all assets and liabilities having transferred to Riverside. However, for the time being, we will continue to use the name ‘One Housing, part of Riverside’ as a trading name, when communicating about our services to former One Housing residents. You will continue to see this on office signs, uniforms and some of our literature.

As part of the proposed transfer, we ran a consultation with residents which was overseen by a Resident Task and Finish Group and conducted by an independent survey organisation.

541 residents responded to the survey with almost 7,000 residents taking the time to review the information on our website or via email. Only a quarter of residents told us they were not in favour of proceeding with the Transfer of Engagements.

This is a major milestone on our integration journey which is bringing the organisations together over the next few years. This will mean that we can deliver better, more cost-effective services to our residents with common standards and processes.

Significant progress has already been made and we remain focussed on delivering services locally and improving our offer to residents.

Some of the positive benefits to the services and support we are offering include:

• Commitment to invest £1billion in improving and repairing our homes over the next 5 years with a focus on building and fire safety, warmer homes and regeneration.
• Providing an additional £3m annually over the next three years to tackle damp, mould and persistent repair issues on top of our existing investment programmes.
• An annual fund to help support our residents through the cost-of-living crisis. In 2022/23 we committed and delivered a spend of £2.5m supporting thousands of residents and from April 2023 this will be increased to £2.75m for the forthcoming financial year.

This transfer does not impact day to day service delivery to any of our residents and you can continue to contact us and access services in the same way as you do now. It means that:

• You continue to live in the same home with services provided locally by the teams you already know.
• Your tenancy/lease agreement will stay the same – only the name of your landlord will change to The Riverside Group Ltd. Your rights, including rents and service charges, whether you are a tenant, shared owner or leaseholder, will be protected.
• Riverside will continue to deliver the pledges it made when One Housing joined the Group
• We continue our commitment to ongoing improvement of services and the delivery of our Resident Engagement Strategy that we have worked with you to develop.

Find out more about our partnership with Riverside here: One Housing and Riverside Group Partnership | OneHousing