Latest Watford Blogs from the Watford Observer

Trusty House represents Watford Community Housing Trust, the town’s largest social landlord, which owns and manages 5,000 properties in and around Watford. The Trust, which is owned by its tenants and leaseholders, has been in existence for just over three years and during that time satisfaction with local neighbourhoods has increased significantly.

Trusty, to his friends, will be providing an update on what is happening at the Housing Trust and in the local communities. He will also be updating you on how people’s lives are changed by the things that he and the team at the Housing Trust do.

Watford Mencap Children’s Centre

I recently visited the newly refurbished soft play area at Watford Mencap Children’s Centre. We awarded £3,574 from our Better Communities Fund to refurbish a soft play area at the Children’s Centre in St Albans Road which is used by children with learning disabilities.

Twitter

Are you a social media fanatic???? I never thought in a million years I would spend my day “tweeting”. You really have to keep up with web-based technologies and what better way to inform everyone of my hectic life than tweeting so I have set myself up with a “Twitter” Account.

Launch of Jobs At Home

One of the reasons I so enjoy being me is that I lead such an exciting and diverse life. An example of this is last Thursday, 25th April I had the privilege to be standing on the Terrace of the House of Commons to attend the launch of “Jobs at Home”. I mean how often do you get a chance to attend an event such as that?

Watford Foodbank

Time has gone by so quickly since I attended the opening of the Watford Foodbank last year with the demand for their services increasing all the time. 

Social Enterprise – The Watford Cycle Hub

Last week I talked about the Green Canteen and all those lovely vegetables I could use.  This week carrying on with the health living theme I thought I’d tell you about another really exciting Social Enterprise we’ve helped to develop - the Watford Cycle Hub.

Social Enterprise – The Green Canteen

How green are your fingers?? I love gardening and find it very therapeutic – there is something about being out in the fresh air, cultivating plants and watching them grow to maturity. Although with the extreme weather conditions we have been experiencing this year, it has been far more challenging but we are really excited at how the Green Canteen has developed since its inception in August last year.

Welfare Reform - Will This Affect You?

There are lots of changes taking place to the Welfare Benefits system this April and I’m sure that many people must be worried about how it affects them.  So I thought I’d discuss these changes with our Financial Inclusion Officer so I could help anyone who asked me about them.

Are You Just One Payday Cheque Away From A Crisis?

With the precarious nature of today’s economy and many jobs being lost nationally with businesses going into administration, if that happened and you found yourself with no pay cheque next month, how would you cope?  How would you pay your bills and buy food for the family?  These are the questions, our residents are facing day in, day out, with many facing a pay freeze, the threat of redundancy hanging over them and some facing problems just getting basic benefits.

Make the Change Now

You hear talk about how people in our community are socially excluded but do you really understand what it actually means for our residents?

Partnership Working

Last Saturday we held a very successful event at our new Community Hub at the Harebreaks. We have refurbished the building, which was formerly managed by Age Concern, with investment from our Better Communities Fund.