Impact for Life
Impact for life is all about getting involved with and involving the more mature members of our communities. We do this by getting out and about in Cumbria and organising events at venues throughout the County., These events provide an informal and friendly opportunity to get together with other people living in your area and also to give you access to various services on your own doorstep.
We have representatives from Impact Housing (obviously!) but we also have people from the Fire Service, the Pensions Service, Action for the Blind and the Local Authorities on hand to answer any queries, supply information and offer advice. As well as this it's a great opportunity to enjoy cookery demonstrations, have a game of bingo and enjoy a jollly good lunch.
The open days run from about 9:15 through to mid afternoon,with scones and cakes for elevenses and lunch served
about 12:30 after the cooking demo.
Local residents are most welcome to pop in at any time staying just as long as you are able, we are also able to provide transport if needed.
The dates for 2009 are:
Great Orton - 19th March
Carlisle - 30th April
Egremont - 4th June
Cockermouth - 16th June
Whitehaven - 20th August
Salterbeck - 22nd October
for further information please contact Pat Goodwin on 01946 833100 or Damien Morris on 01228 633630
Below is the 2008 report for Impact For Life
Impact for Life open days followed the same format as the other successful years, and Impact for Life did go into rural arrears again this year and the only good one has been Great Orton.
Alex Arthur |
Community Safety Officer |
Cumbria fire Service |
Aureole Charteris-Hough |
Local Service Delivery Manager |
The Pension Service |
Simon Routledge |
Benefits Visiting Officer |
Allerdale Borough Council |
Gillian Hunter |
Senior Property Services Assistant |
Impact Housing |
Neal Atkinson & |
Mobile Information Officers |
Action for Blind |
John Crouch |
Cooking for health eating on the day |
£280.00 |
Great Orton Village hall |
8th May 2008 |
£187.92 Room Hire etc |
The Old Town Hall Carlisle |
26th June 2008 |
£150.03 Room Hire etc |
Cleator Moor Pensioners Club |
25th July 2008 |
£45.65 Room Hire etc. |
Wigton Methodist Church |
29th August 2008 |
£144.54 Room Hire etc |
The Oval centre |
14th October 2008 |
£200.00 Room Hure etc |
The five open days over the last 12 months have cost Impact Housing £337.30 the reason being, the following agencies The Pension Service paid £250.00 the open day at The Oval Centre, Fire Service paid £250.00 for the Open day at Great Orton and Homes paid £250.00 for the day at Wigton, the value of the money given to the tenants over the last 12 months was £32,140.16. Carlisle was not very well attended this year not sure why this was. Great Orton and Salterbeck are always very well attended and this is the reason we always return but we do try to add variety to the day so that any Tenants returning are not just having the same old thing.
Great Orton 8th May 2008
Excellent venue. Well attended not only by people from the village, but also from the surrounding areas. This was due again to Frances who not only looks after the village hall, but writes and delivers the news letter which Impact for Life wrote an invitation for the village and surrounding areas. This day was such a success that all the people who attended did say that we could come back next week and every other week for as long as we liked.
The Old Town Hall Carlisle 26th June 2008.
This one for the first time was very poor not many people attended. When I phoned some of the Tenants who had attended previous years they said it was because of the postal strike and the letters were not delivered until 4pm on the day. Damien has suggested that next year we hold the open day at Centre 47 and Damien and Jim will ferry the people in from Lime Street and Close Street etc.
Cleator Moor Pension Club 26th July 2008
The day was well attended one or two people came who knew that they were no entitled to anything as they had received all their benefit entitlements when Impact for Life was last there but the day had been so good and with good company so decided to come back again. We asked Homes if would like to come in with us for this one.
Wigton Methodist Church rooms 29th August 2008
Not very well attended and because we have not a lot of properties at Wigton phoned Homes to see if they would like to ask their tenants along have spoken to George from Homes who tell me it was a good day and Tenants that did come along enjoyed it and both Impact and the outside agencies had worked hardl to make the day a success, he would like to be kept in mind for next year and if I phone him up with dates for next year he will put me in touch with their regeneration officer.
The Oval Centre Salterbeck 14th October 2008
Again this was well attended the people in Salterbeck just like the company as most people have all benefit entitlements. This year as added bonus we had the Action for blind bus and this was not just for the over 55’s but anyone who wanted to attend. The visiting officer from Carlisle came along and Neal Atkinson were going to visit any Tenant who could not make it to the Oval Centre. Talking with the Tenants afterwards who had been visited found this very helpful and would not hesitate to get in touch with the people from the Action for Blind as they were saying it was nice to talk face to face with them. From these open days at Salterbeck every Tuesdays there is a Bingo session, which we have got volunteers for and every week there is between 30 – 40 people there we have also invited the people from the Residential Care Homes and they come each week. This has also worked well for The Oval Centre as we worked with them to see if we could get a pensioner special for lunch, which now happens and there is a 2 course meal for £2.50 and if you want transport then it is £3.00. We also started tea dances and put in for funding from South Workington which we got but the Tea Dances have not been much of a success so we are going to have different things on each month e.g. Seaton Ladies Choir and Stainburn Steel Band, also different films every other month. We have already had a film day with them which was a successful day. Starting in 2009 these afternoon will be held the last Wednesday of every month. These days are not only attended by people from Salterbeck but a lot come from sheltered accommodation at Salisbury in Workington, we think we could get a lot more to attend but our draw back is TRANSPORT which we will be looking into.
Fire service
Impact Housing have given the fire service all the addresses of all the properties in the West, all these properties will have a home safety test and a smoke detector fitted and will be maintained by the fire service this is due to Impact for Life and the good relationship we have with Alex from the fire service. Tenants will also be given free and friendly advice.
Great Orton
1 Pension Credit = £667.00 P.A.
None
1 Pension Credit = £1292.20 P.A.
1 Attendance Allowance = £3484.00
The Oval Centre
1 Housing Benefit = £1400.00 P.A.
No feed back
People were interested but as yet no follow up.
John Crouch has been our celebrity chef for the open days and this year, his cooking was all about healthy eating. He has not only been a success with the tenants and outside agencies but our selves as well sampling the food. John always provides the recipes are easy to follow and I should know because I have made a few of the dishes.
Housing Officers are always welcomed and invited to attend when we have an open day in their area. Morag and Cynthia usually come along to their area open days.
Closing this year off we are still as enthusiastic about Impact for Life as we were when we first started, this also includes the outside agencies as well. Also this year we had 2 new members who are Gillian Percival who works for Copeland Borough Council and Tina Macdonald Carlisle City Council who both work for Housing Benefit. Gillian Hunter property services also always comes to the open days we have, which is also a bonus to the days as Gill can advise our tenant about the adaptation that Impact may be able to help tenants with
2009 will take the same format but we would like to bring other outside agencies on board as well, The Deaf Association
We are going to keep the Open Days at both Salterbeck and Carlisle as these 2 are always well attended and will go back again to Great Orton. At Great Orton we are lucky to have the blind mobility service there with us. .Impact for Life wanted to walk before it could run and we now in that position. So if we go into a rural area where we have not many properties then we will ask other housing providers such as Homes, to ask their tenant to the open days. Impact for life will organize the day and ask the other housing providers to help with the cost. Last year we said we would go from strength to strength which we think we have, so the whole group is looking forward to 2009 with great enthusiasm.
Without the funding we have received from Impact Housing and the continued support of Keith Dobson as well as the Outside Agencies. Impact for life would not have achieved the success that it has. At today’s date Impact for Life has given back to our Tenants at total of £113,315.36.
Patricia Goodwin and Doreen Lauder