The Branch - Summer 2014

Summer 2014

The Branch is back for the second edition this year! The Good Neighbours Team at Manchester Student Homes has been busy working on lots of exciting projects. We hope you’re enjoying the summer and look forward to working with you over the next academic year!

BHF End of Year Campaign Manchester Student Homes has been delighted to work with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Manchester City Council and the Universities on an end of year recycling project.

The ‘Moving On Campaign’ is now in its third year and encourages students to donate unwanted items that they won’t be taking home at the end of the academic year.

Donations are sent to the BHF for use in their shops, where the money raised funds specialist heart nurses to work in hospitals throughout the UK. 33 tonnes of donations were collected in 2013 equating to nearly £57,000; a figure that doesn’t even include the money saved from preventing would-be donations going to landfill. Thank you to all those who were involved in the campaign, including Manchester Student Homes landlords and private halls, and a number of long term residents.

Website Launch The MSH Good Neighbours Team has been busy revamping their website.

The team has worked closely with students, residents and landlords to ensure that the site is user friendly and the content is meaningful. Since the new website went live at the beginning of May 2014 we have had 22,500 visitors. Get online to read regular updates from the Good Neighbours Team and find out about the latest community events across the City.

Check it out: www.manchesterstudenthomes.com/ pages/community We’d love to hear from you if you have any ideas for our website. Get in touch by email: poppy.humphrey@ manchester.ac.uk or tweet us @Man_Student_Hme.

Hello to our Summer Interns!

We would like to welcome two University of Manchester interns to Manchester Student Homes. Ravinder and Hannah, who will be joining the Manchester Student Homes Team for 8 weeks over the summer. They will also be working on two projects, the first of which focuses on alcohol issues and the second on key community issues agreed at the Community Forum in April.

Ravinder and Hannah will be blogging and tweeting about their experiences so keep your eyes on the MSH website and twitter feed. It would be great if you could pop in and say hi to our latest recruits over the summer!

Manchester Student Homes is a free, university-run housing service for students. Based in Fallowfield, MSH runs a landlord accreditation scheme and can offer support to students in relation to property searches, providing housing advice and contract checking. MSH also works with students, the community and partner agencies to identify issues in off campus areas.

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Give and Gain Day

Robin Easby Interview

Back in May, Manchester Student Homes supported Greater Manchester Police to take part in Give and Gain Day 2014. Over 50 Special Constables were given the opportunity to volunteer around South Manchester. The team held a stall in Sainsbury’s Fallowfield to provide personal safety and household security tips to long term residents and students. Special Constables also attended the student anti-social behaviour visits alongside the Off Campus Student Affairs Officer. The day was a huge success. Thanks to all the Special Constables for giving up their time to volunteer in the community.

The Good Neighbours Team work closely with community members. Robin Easby, Chair of the Brailsford, Moseley, Braemar and Balmoral (BMBB) Residents’ Group took the time to chat with us about his commitment to the community.

Give and Gain Day helps over 35,000 employees take part in local community volunteering with the support of their employers.

The Specials made a noticeable difference to the communities of South Manchester and they gave out some key safety messages to the students in Owens Park and surrounding areas.

The day was a great success and I am grateful for the Special Constables for giving up their time to make their communities a safer place for all. This was another great opportunity to work with Manchester Student Homes on behalf of the Universities.

PS Stevie Swindells Police Sergeant, West Didsbury Police Station

Birley Fields The MMU Birley Fields Campus is on target to open in September 2014. The new campus will house the School of Education and the School of Health, Psychology and Social Care. Manchester Student Homes have worked closely with MMU to ensure that views and ideas of the community are taken on board. There will be a focus on community initiatives and the use of shared facilities such as sports halls. Student volunteers and ambassadors will be made available for local community projects and engagement, and there will also be an increased emphasis on the partnership opportunities for local residents, businesses, and community groups.

How would you describe your role in the community?

“I organise group meetings, write up minutes and agendas. I also attend Council planning and licensing hearings if there is an issue that it was felt would have an adverse effect on the area. Along with other residents and members of the group, I liaise with the council regarding issues in the area such as fly tipping. I‘m currently tidying the flower beds on Brailsford and Braemar Roads with the help of other residents but we do need more help! We also want to involve students in our activities and hopefully will have a ‘Welcome Student Family Fun Day’ when the students arrive in the Autumn.”

What do you think is the main contribution students make to the local area?

“The financial benefit to local businesses, especially on Wilmslow Road. It would be really good if students became more involved in the area. There are often a lot of negative attitudes towards the noise, parties and other issues associated with students. By getting involved in residents’ groups’ or community activities, students can show all the great things they bring to an area.”

What’s your main campaign at the moment?

“I’m always going on about this, both students and permanent residents, please help with the littering.

If you don’t want it, bin it! To all students and permanent residents, you will be most welcome to come to the Residents’ Group meetings to have your say on how we can improve our area.”

If you’re interested in finding out more about any of the stories featured, or would like to join our mailing list e-mail Email poppy.humphrey@manchester.ac.uk

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Halls to Home Campaign The 2nd Year The Good Neighbours Team has been working alongside students, university colleagues and community members as part of the Halls to Home campaign.

The project aims to encourage students to learn more about their new community as soon as they arrive on campus, ready for their transition into their own home in the 2nd year.

Ongoing support is provided to students through a series of educational campaigns and events. This can help encourage awareness of community issues and responsibilities.

Here’s some great examples of events which saw long term residents and students working together!

Manchester Student Homes works with University of Manchester’s Residences department to host the second Ashburne and Sheavyn Halls of Residence Easter Egg Hunt!

Local families were invited to Ashburne Hall on the Owens Park Campus to enjoy fantastic entertainment and, of course, hunt for lots of chocolate! The children (and some of the adults!) were kept busy on a huge bouncy castle, and it was smiles all round for all who attended as they made their way home with oodles of Easter treats.

Community Coffee Morning For the first time Manchester Student Homes ran a coffee morning for local residents and students from the Manchester Leadership Programme.

The event was well attended by Community Guardians, local PCSOs and residents from around Manchester.

Welcome Booklet The Good Neighbours Team has been working closely with the Residences department at The University of Manchester to design a welcome booklet. This will be delivered to students at home during the summer and will contain information about local services and ways in which students can get involved in their local communities.

Good Neighbours Award We are proud to announce the winners of the 2014 Community Award!

After receiving an unprecedented number of nominations, Manchester Student Homes is delighted to announce that Helen Aczel and Love Withington Baths have been named as the 2014 winners!

Both thoroughly deserve the award for the amazing work carried out in the community.

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Helen, a long term resident of Fallowfield has dedicated over 30 years to supporting the work of South East Fallowfield Residents Group. We would like to present Helen the award for these continued efforts to champion the views of the local community. We would also like to present Love Withington Baths with an award for their fantastic and continued work in campaigning to preserve this much needed community facility.

Congratulations to both worthy winners!

We would also like to announce that a Special Commendation is to be awarded to Enid Phillips who sadly passed away earlier this year. The award cerebrates Enid’s dedication to her community throughout all the years that she lived in the Medlock Area.

Neighbourhood Helpline Multi-Agency Visits since September 2013 The neighbourhood helpline is a 24 hour answering machine service for issues relating to students in the community. Please call 0161 275 1863 or e-mail neighbourhood.helpline@manchester.ac.uk We will respond to your contact within one working day and will liaise with GMP and Manchester City Council to respond in partnership to your concerns.

Since the start of term in September, we’ve carried out over 300 visits.

Remember this service is for students to use too.

If you’re interested in finding out more about any of the stories featured, or would like to join our mailing list e-mail Email poppy.humphrey@manchester.ac.uk

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Community Forum Back in April, Manchester Student Homes, in partnership with The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester City Council hosted a Community Forum.

The evening was the chance for community members to work alongside University Officers, SU sabbatical officers, local Councillors and Council Officers to share views of key issues relating to students in the community. These were: • Alcohol • Student housing • Environment • Nuisance • Student Safety • Student contribution to the community including a focus on volunteering.

The Universities are aware the above issues are of importance to communities. There is a huge amount of work being carried out in relation to community engagement at present. The Forum was the opportunity for presentations to be heard from Jane Ratchford, Director for the Student Development & Community Engagement Division and Poppy Humphrey, Off Campus Student Affairs Officer at Manchester Student Homes. The session was a useful opportunity to gather thoughts from community members on how the Universities can explore new ways of working with key partners to respond to concerns and opportunities relating to the above themes.

The next Community Forum will be held in September, dates will be publicised shortly.

Landlord Training The Good Neighbours Team recently held its training session for Manchester Student Homes accredited landlords.

The session, entitled Better Engaging Student Tenants (BEST), focused on how landlords could improve their interaction with student tenants and the wider community.

The session highlighted services available to student tenants and the importance of landlords in providing this information. There was also a discussion on how to create meaningful ‘Welcome Packs’ to be given to incoming students as a means of introducing them to the off campus community. We were delighted to receive overwhelmingly positive feedback from the session. We were extremely impressed with the number of landlords who were interested in getting more involved in community events and took a keen interest in community matters. We would like to thank all the landlords that attended the session as well as to thank all the landlords who continue to engage with us over issues of anti-social behaviour and littering that have such a huge impact on the community.

The session was very interactive and made landlords think about how they would manage anti-social behaviour. There was a great contribution from delegates and the session proved to be a great learning experience. Thanks to all who came.

Cooper Healey Manchester Student Homes Manager

Farewell to our Community Cohesion Intern June saw the departure of our Community Cohesion Intern, Jack Harrison, who left us for pastures new.

Jack has been a valued member of the team and his input on all aspects of Manchester Student Homes will be missed. The next Community Cohesion Intern will be appointed with effect from September 2014.

For more information, to report any issues, make suggestions or if you would like to add a community event to our newsletter please contact: Poppy: poppy.humphrey@manchester.ac.uk Stop by and see us: Unit 1-3 Ladybarn House, Moseley Road, Fallowfield M14 6ND Give us a call: 0161 275 7680 Follow us on Twitter: @Man_Student_Hme Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/ManchesterStudentHomes Visit: www.manchesterstudenthomes.com

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