A new approach to tenant participation
Jacqui Fleming recently joined the team at Angus Housing Association in the role of Tenant Engagement Assistant.
We spoke to Jacqui about how excited she was about her new role and how her previous experience will be useful in engaging with young people to participate using a community learning and development (CLD) approach .
“When I saw the job application, I could see lots of synergies with the tenant engagement role and my previous roles within community learning and development in Dundee City Council. In a previous CLD role, I worked with community groups focussing on consultation and addressing the needs of the community.”
My previous role was Community Learning and Development Youth Worker at Dundee Council. In a previous CLD role, I worked with community groups, focusing on consultation and addressing the needs of the community. Housing was an essential requirement of people living in communities.
I admire the values of Angus HA, i.e. respecting tenants and the individual, finding ways of working together and with these values at the core of everything we do across tenant engagement, I’m really looking forward to delivering fantastic projects that embrace and celebrate these values.
When working for Dundee Council some of my time was spent working within the youth sector and I want to build on that experience at Angus HA. My plans are to work in partnership with youth teams, local schools and colleges to raise the profile of Angus HA and understand how we can engage with young people to find out what they want. I see us moving away from traditional tenant participation strategies to involve young people in different projects, perhaps volunteering or delivering programmes that young people develop around the practicalities of tenancy. There are so many great opportunities to engage this demographic.
I feel I bring lots of new skills and experiences to the tenant participation team, and I really appreciate the way Angus HA encourages me, and my colleagues, to be flexible in our thinking, providing the autonomy to bring new approaches and ways of working.
I’m so glad I’ve taken the leap into tenant engagement. I was in my former role in CLD for 13 years so it was time for a change. This role allows me to take all the fantastic learning and experiences in my previous role and apply them in new ways. Angus Housing Association is a great organisation to work for and I’m happy to be one of the people flying the flag for all the great work we do.”
To find out more about Angus Housing Assocation visit https://www.angusha.org.uk