EB Staff Newsletter April 2023

There are no starters or leavers this month

Welcome to your East Boro staff newsletter.

I’m always happy to include your birthdays, anniversaries, births and good news stories.

If you are running a marathon for charity, would like to share information about a local event or would like to share anything with your colleagues, then YOUR staff newsletter is the perfect platform for you.

If you would like to contribute to YOUR staff newsletter in any way, please contact me, Sue.Hole@aster.co.uk

Connected Living team launch new retail concession

Aster’s Connected Living team has launched a new retail concession in Dorset, offering a range of services to help people live at home independently for longer.

This month the team were on site at the Lifestyle and Mobility store in Boscombe, Dorset to speak to customers and promote the service.

Connected Living support customers within our local communities to live their life, their way with the added reassurance of help at the touch of a button when needed.

The new partnership between Connected Living and Lifestyle and Mobility will allow us to reach more people and connect with a larger audience. Lifestyle and Mobility have several shops across the south and south west and we’ll be looking at expanding our partnership throughout the year. We will also be promoting its mobility services to our Connected Living customers.

Over the last few weeks, the team have been busy preparing for the launch and making sure that Connected Living products are available to showcase in the store.

During the launch we enjoyed being able to speak to people face to face and sharing the services on offer. People asked lots of questions and were interested in how our monitoring centre helps people when they have a fall or need help at home. We have also trained the Lifestyle and Mobility team so that they can help people interested in Connected Living to find the right solution.

East Boro is commited to investing in our staff.

If there is a training course you would like to attend, please talk to your Line Manager.

Developments in Development Curtis Fields, phase two

On 31 March we completed on phase two of Curtis Fields. East Boro is all set to hand over the keys to the occupiers of a collection of new affordable homes on the Betterment Properties Curtis Fields development in Weymouth.

Located just over a mile from Weymouth Town Centre Harbourside and Esplanade, the new eighteen affordable homes, comprising of a mix of four one-bedroom and fourteen two-bedroom houses, deliver much needed accommodation to rent and part-buy. Ten of the homes will be available to rent on an affordable basis by local residents or those with a strong connection to the area with the remaining houses available to purchase through shared ownership.

Shared ownership provides an affordable way onto – or back onto - the housing ladder. Buyers purchase a share of a property and pay rent on the remaining share. This reduces the size of the initial deposit required and if they want to, purchasers can buy more shares in their property (known as staircasing), eventually leading to outright home ownership.

Commenting on the new homes East Boro chief executive, Kevin Hodder, said: “There have long been calls for more affordable homes in Weymouth. These new eighteen homes will make a big difference to those in the local community.

“Those keen to stay in the area, close to family and friends will have the chance to live in excellent new homes either by affordably renting a home, or for those looking to step onto the housing ladder, there will be an affordable route to home ownership.”

East Boro worked in partnership with local Weymouth Developer, Betterment Properties to deliver the eighteen new affordable properties. A spokesperson for Betterment Properties said: “We are pleased to have worked with East Boro, enabling us to deliver these affordable homes on this phase of our Curtis Fields scheme”.

The new homes will help Dorset Council provide more affordable housing in the area. Cllr Graham CarrJones, portfolio holder for housing and community safety at Dorset Council said: “I am very pleased to see more affordable homes come to fruition to support our commitment to housing for our residents. Curtis Fields is an excellent addition to Weymouth, one of several areas with a strong demand for all tenures of affordable housing.

“These new homes are another example of how the council successfully works with housing developers and registered providers to bring new homes, for local need, to the market. I would like to thank East Boro Housing Trust and Betterment Properties for their hard work, and I hope this partnership continues to benefit local people in housing need.”

The rented homes will be managed by East Boro and the shared ownership homes will be managed by Aster Group.

Talk

If you often experience feelings of stress, you might be at risk of developing a mental health problem like depression or anxiety. One of the things to help keep you mentally and physically healthy is taking regular breaks. Here are four top tips to help:

Tip 1: The basics: any break is better than no break.

Taking a break—any break—is better than powering through. A study in Applied Cognitive Psychology ran a head-to-head comparison of five different kinds of breaks.Everyone was asked to focus on a task that required sustained attention for 45 minutes. In the middle, participants took a five-minute break to play on their phone, sit in silence, listen to a song, or watch a music video. Compared to the group that took no break at all, performance was better in every single one of the break conditions. Taking any break, whether it’s quiet or loud, mindless or mindful, is better than taking nothing at all.

Tip 2: Take a break that

feels different from your work.

For so many of us, a break from staring at our computer means... staring at our phone. We’ll watch YouTube, scroll through Twitter, or check out Instagram. It’s fun, but then we turn back to... another screen. Instead, try something that feels different from work. Move your body, get outside, or both. Even just a cuddle session with your cat can make a difference.

Tip 3: If your breaks frequently go off the rails, take breaks that keep you in a work mindset. Does “just five minutes of TikTok” morph into three hours? If your breaks frequently go off the rails, do something quick and easy that’s not work-related but keeps you in a productive mindset. When we do these things to avoid our work, this is called productive procrastination - productive tasks that don’t require much brainpower but still provide contrast to your work can downshift your gears without taking you out of a work mindset.

Tip 4: When it’s time to rest, rest like you mean it.

After your work is over, rest like you mean it. If your work week keeps you tethered to your email, dare to leave it behind on the weekend. Use evenings and weekends to put away your to-do list, do activities that take you out and away from work completely, check in with friends and family, because that’s what is really important.

Be stress aware

about and address any feelings you or others in your team might be experiencing.

what’s on May

Book early as many courses get booked up. If you have any questions, please email EEandOL@aster.co.uk

Mental Health Champions - CARE - Part 1

Mental Health Champions - CARE - Part 2

Beating Imposter Syndrome with 7 easy steps

Mental Health Champions - CARE - Part 1

Mental Health Champions - CARE - Part 2

Introduction to Mental Health

Training Your Inner Chimp

Sofa Sessions - Glenda Rivoallan - resilience and talk about the importance of mindset in menopause

Keeping Your Colleagues Well & Managing Sickness Absence

Mental Health Champions - Part 1

Mental Health Champions - Part 2