September Newsletter

Dear Residents

I hope that you all had a good summer.

We’ve been busy at CHISEL improving and updating the organisation, and as ever, so good to meet many of you, when I’ve been out and about.

One tradition I found at CHISEL which I think I have actually reintroduced, is the giving of an engraved chisel to say thank you to significant and long-serving staff. I was really pleased to be able to commission a CHISEL chisel for my predecessor and friend Carmen White, who left CHISEL to be CEO of a much bigger supported housing association in southwest London. A lot of the positive changes we’ve introduced recently had the groundwork laid by Carmen, and she helped to recruit me, for which I will always be grateful.

More good news is that CHISEL has signed the LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge, which is run by Stonewall Housing and HouseProud, If you’re reading this on our website, you’ll be able to see the logo we can now sport, which shows that CHISEL is committed to going the extra mile to ensure that our LGBTQ+ residents feel ‘at home’ and live their authentic lives in our homes and communities. There’s more information here.

As it begins to get dark earlier, and colder it can be difficult for some of us, and it can help to have a friendly ear or get some advice. Many of you have already used our new Life and Progress live advice and talking therapy service, which is completely anonymous and available to CHISEL residents 24 hours every day of the year. The details are here: Life & Progress – CHISEL Housing

We’re all really pleased to see that thanks to you reading this newsletter we have three new potential Board Members, all of whom are CHISEL residents. They have been invited to attend the Board’s awayday in September, and will be very welcome if they would like to bring their voices to our Board. In addition to our Board, CHISEL also has Shareholders, and since we agreed to update our rules at the last AGM, the Board will be re-examining our Membership Policy to ascertain who can be shareholders, and what role they can play in CHISEL’s development going forward.

A really big thank you to all of our involved residents, and the feedback, challenge and support that you give us.

It’s with much sadness, that I have to share with you the passing of Pete Webb, who has given so much to CHISEL and Three Boroughs Housing Co-op of which he was a member. Although Pete was possibly our sternest critic, in recent months he contributed greatly to our discussions about our new working relationship with Three Boroughs, and we had made some extensive changes in his home to make sure he was comfortable.

Pete used to write poems for this newsletter when it was in printed form and ran a Poetry and Performance workshop. Here is Pete’s poem ‘Struggle’ which he wrote in lockdown.

And it just remains to give our deepest sympathies to Pete’s family, friends and neighbours.