Meet the Team: Electricians

Winter 2022 saw FCHA recruit 2 new electricians to help develop the electrical systems at tenant properties and in the head office here in Cardiff.

The Team

Ciaran is our new electrician. He has worked in the social housing sector for a number of years carrying out electrical maintenance and condition reports.

Tina has also joined the team as the Apprentice Electrician. For the past 2 years she has been at college completing electrical installations. She will be working to assist Ciaran on site and to further her skills to become a qualified electrician.

What will they be doing?

Ciaran and Tina's main role will be helping FCHA achieve their goal of becoming carbon neutral. This will involve installing energy monitoring equipment into properties to analyse energy use and environmental monitors to provide data on the conditions of the properties. They will also be equipping some homes with smart technology to give tenants control over their homes and help reduce energy use.

Tenants and Digital Tech

Here are some quotes from tenants in Swansea who have had sensors and smart technology added to their home. These tenants have also been provided digital equipment to help them reduce their energy costs and allow them to be more digitally included.

The FCHA Van

New to FCHA are the vans! These new vehicles will allow some staff to get the work done at tenant properties more effectively. Ciaran and Tina will use this to install smart devices in tenant homes or help with electrical issues.

We encourage all tenants and staff to get a photo in front of the FCHA van if spotted outside your home. We encourage all tenants to send photos and stories of their experiences with digital technology to go in our Newsletter. All entries have a chance to win a voucher from us!

Here's one tenant standing in front of the van!

Keep Wales Tidy: A Retrospective

First Choice Tenants have continued to tell us how important outside space and access to nature is for their wellbeing, and we have continued to listen!

Start of Cardiff Property 2021

Since November 2021, we have completed 13 garden projects worth over £65k through our partnership with Keep Wales Tidy. This is something we are still looking to continue.

Matthew and Chloe

Outside space is so important to our tenants, particularly during the pandemic for fresh air and wellbeing, and Keep Wales Tidy have helped us to enhance this private garden. We had a great afternoon planting fruit trees, a small vegetable garden, and wildflowers across the property; come summer and years to come it will be colourful and full of fruit. A big thank you to Keep Wales Tidy for their support and guidance (who knew there was that much to planting trees) on this project. - Matthew, FCHA Board (Vice Chair)

Keep Wales Tidy runs the 'Local Places for Nature' initiative which offers a range of free garden packages. The intention is to reverse nature's decline and boost wellbeing throughout communities in Wales.

At the beginning, we were supplied with smaller garden packages which included fruit trees, fruit bushes, wildflowers, bulbs, habitat boxes and tools to maintain the garden. You can read about our first projects with Keep Wales Tidy here: https://www.fcha.org.uk/post/fcha-keep-wales-tidy

Since then, some projects have grown to include raised beds, ponds, greenhouses, tool sheds, compost bins and seating areas. All of these were developed with the help of FCHA staff, volunteers from FCHA partners, Support Provider staff and the Tenants themselves getting involved wherever possible.

These garden projects are tailored around the Tenants interests and needs. Feedback has shown that the garden projects have improved wellbeing and the biodiversity of the outside space, enabling better access to nature from the doorstep for Tenants and their support networks.

Tenant Talks Spring 2022

A lot has changed since our last set of Tenant Talks events. We have increased the number of staff at the organisation who help tenants in both north and south Wales whilst also challenging ourselves to deliver more information and resources on the environment, energy, money and Health and Wellbeing.

Climate change & decarbonisation

FCHA has had a lot of work done to the organisation as a whole when it comes to decarbonisation. 2 of our staff received carbon literacy training which we passed onto Tenants during these tenant talks.

Lots of aspects were covered including:

1. What is the greenhouse effect?

2. Greenhouse gases and what the sources are

3. What is a carbon footprint?

4. What does zero carbon mean?

5. What FCHA are doing to reduce their carbon footprint?

By informing tenants on the above, we can help them understand what in their household produces greenhouse gases and it gave them a foundation for the next part of the Tenants Talk, which was energy saving tips.

Money & energy saving tips

Energy prices are on the rise so FCHA thought it was appropriate to provide tenants with some energy saving advice. This information was already provided in the Newsletter that was delivered to all tenants and is also available on our website as a blog, just click here.

The energy tips given were a success! Some tenants already practised some of the tips provided in the session, such as having energy saving bulbs and only boiling the water you need in the kettle.

But they said that the other tips provided were very easy to implement and will start doing these more often.

Raffle

In North Wales as part of a Healthy Eating drive, our Housing Manager Maureen created 3 fruit baskets that went down a treat! In the South, Chocolates were handed out as prizes and the whole raffle was a success.

National Trust and future events

As part of our Health and Wellbeing drive in 2022 the National Trust provided us with a special pass allowing First Choice Tenants to visit any National Trust site in Wales free of charge. This pass allows up to 50 people to attend any National Trust site for a number of activities until November 2022. You can read more about it by clicking here.

Tenants were very excited to be provided with an opportunity like this and there are plans for some visits this year already!

Renting Homes Act

A new act to be implemented in July 2022 will change every tenants’ Tenancy Agreement to an Occupancy Contract. We provided tenants with information about what that will mean for them going forward after July and ensured that all Tenants will have to sign and return the new contracts to FCHA in the post.

More information will be provided closer to the date as well as a blog which will be linked here.

Community Involvement Grant

FCHA's community involvement grant is to benefit tenants and the communities that they live in. Tenants were given information as to how to apply for a community involvement grant which is a fund that FCHA can provide for more equipment, helping with partnerships or to help fund local community volunteer groups that tenants are a part of.

Tenants Voice newsletter

Finally, we talked about our Tenants’ Voice newsletter and spoke to tenants about how they can get involved in contributing stories, hobbies and recipes to share with other First Choice tenants.

These newsletters are given to every property at FCHA so we provided information about how to send us a story and mentioned that there is a prize for the best story in every newsletter!

The next Newsletter is due in July so keep your eyes peeled for the stories from tenants at this season's Tenant Talks.

Gig Buddies

A special guest was at our Tenants Talk in north Wales. Gig Buddies Cymru made an appearance with their stall to provide information about their project and to provide opportunities for FCHA Tenants in North Wales to meet a Gig Buddy and go to events with a new friend!

A Gig Buddy is a volunteer who shares the same interests in music and hobbies as you. They can go to gigs and events with you that are sometimes hard to get to.