Supporting independence and wellbeing, and helping communities to flourish
Money advice
As part of the Bolton at Home Group, Arcon customers can access free confidential, independent advice on a full range of money matters. If you need help managing debt and maximising your income, contact us for a referral to our Money Advice Team.
of financial gains and savings found for customers.
in extra Universal Credit personal allowances.
customers given expert money advice.
customers received Council Tax support.
in extra Housing Benefit/Universal Credit housing costs.
United Utilities fund towards help paying water bills.
in extra tax credits for customers.
Our Housing Officers also helped our customers struggling to afford their rent gain £8.6k in Discretionary Housing Payments from local councils. This means over the year our customers gained a total of £46.1k in income through additional benefits and discretionary financial assistance.
If you’ve got money worries or debt issues, please contact us for a referral to the Money Advice service.
Phone: 0161 214 4120, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Email: customerservice@arcon.org.uk
Website: www.arcon.org.uk/contact-us
Arcon customer app: Available for download from Google Play or the App Store.
Tackling antisocial behaviour
We know that antisocial behaviour goes beyond just being a nuisance. It can cause destruction and harm to lives and neighbourhoods. We’re committed to tackling antisocial behaviour in our communities and work daily with our customers, neighbours and Greater Manchester Police to do what we can to stop it in its tracks.
78.6 % (92 out of 117) of new antisocial behaviour reports (not including domestic abuse cases) were acted upon by us contacting or attempting to contact customers within our service targets of either 1 or 5 working days depending on the severity of the incident.
87.5% (7 out of 8) of customers said they were satisfied with how their case was handled.
75% (6 out of 8) of customers said they were satisfied with the outcome of their case.
75% (6 out of 8) of customers said they were satisfied with how we updated them on what was happening during their case.
Antisocial behaviour reports across Greater Manchester grew this year by 15-20% as more people spent time at home or not in school. Neighbours reporting social distancing breaches were also logged as antisocial behaviour.
We worked with the police to use legal powers to end serious antisocial behaviour such as regular parties or drug use.
However, due to safe working practices, most monitoring for evidence had to take place outside the home. At the same time, court thresholds for prosecutions were higher and timescales longer due to the pandemic.
In line with government legislation during the pandemic, and our work to support more people to resolve their money issues or rent arrears, there were no tenant evictions last year.
You can read more about our approach to antisocial behaviour and hate crime, and how to report them, here www.arcon.org.uk/asb
Community Investment
Creating a healthy neighbourhood is all about bringing people together as a community and running projects that help support one another.
Where we can, we help community groups to prosper by finding funding opportunities and offering daily support to help them run smoothly. We also help facilitate community events to help bring people together and reduce loneliness.
Community activities during the pandemic have been crucially important for keeping spirits high and people connected.
We were required to overcome some challenges as many community groups couldn’t meet inside. We worked to find and create alternative spaces outside where people could continue to come together safely by improving the infrastructure such as the toilet facilities, electricity, and Wi-Fi hotspots.
We took activities online so people could stay connected and motivate each other.
These included ‘paint along with’ classes, ‘We are Women’ webinars and workshops with inspirational female speakers, parents’ groups, neighbourhood chats and craft sessions, all delivered remotely and free of charge to participants. We also delivered several socially distanced community arts projects on estates.
Our COVID-19 response projects
- We supported partners in delivering the COVID-19 response, including supporting the vaccination centre (Jan 21) and localised door knocks (led by Manchester City Council) to raise awareness in new variant areas.
- We also supported the distribution of Gorton and Levenshulme Age-Friendly Network Winter Warmer packs to older residents in the area.
Community Investment projects, groups and activities
This year we have:
Worked with Buzz Health and Wellbeing service to support the Age Friendly bench initiative in Gorton and Abbey Hey to encourage older people to get back outside walking in their communities. We worked with local councillors, the police and Highways England to site the benches, consulted residents, and worked with one of our tenants to support the project. The benches were installed in September and the launch event took place in October, which included a walk through Gorton and Abbey Hey with performances, activities and food and drink along the route.
Facilitated and funded a new weekly Arcon Women’s Craft Group to deliver craft, confidence-building, and wellbeing sessions for tenants. Sessions tackle social isolation by creating new networks for tenants as well as linking to other local services.
Facilitated and funded Talk About it Mate, a new free, weekly Men’s Peer support group in Levenshulme.
Working with Manchester City Council, tenants and residents worked to deliver the community Back-street Clean Up on Chatsworth Road; they transformed a shared ginnel and raised recycling awareness in the area.
Before
During
After
The We are Women project was created in partnership with Arcon and Bolton at Home’s Community Investment Teams and Touchstone Rochdale as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign - celebrating strengths, solidarity and achievements whilst signposting to support services. The We Are Women project consists of a series of webinar events to inspire and uplift, a magazine to showcase partner organisations and available support, and a podcast for women to share their stories of hope and calls to action. 94 participants have attended 10 webinars from Nov 20 - June 21.
Supported Online Soap for the Future, a Women’s Craft and Enterprise course and coaching support. We targeted promotion to our tenants via leaflet drops in Gorton/Levenshulme in December and delivered a Pop-Up Exhibition and Mini Craft Market in May.
Created and delivered the Light’Arted project to enable tenants to access art in a new and innovative way, reduce social isolation and celebrate community spirit. Working in partnership with Co-op enabled Touchstones to commission a local artist, Beam Irwin, to create light installation creative kits inspired by Lowry paintings at Touchstone’s gallery. We worked with HMR Circle and Rochdale Council to distribute the creative packs and Keeping Well this Winter wellbeing booklets to over 137 tenants. We also hosted street celebration events over the summer which included activities, and Touchstones brought two Lowrys from their collection along.
Images of tenants' Lowry inspired window displays were featured in Touchstones’ ‘What’s Changed’ exhibition in 2021, where tentants were invited to attend a special showcase of the exhibition.
We have taken part in door-step engagement to deliver Community Investment guides to tenants and promote local activities, projects, groups and services.
We also...
- Provided funding to support local group TDS Dance (Abbey Hey) to put on subsidised dance and exercise classes for over 50s for 6 months in 2021.
- Provided funding support to Denton Carnival.
- Provided funding towards Debdale Nature Centre open day.
- Provided funding towards Friends of Chapel Street Park.
- Provided funding towards Levenshulme Light Switch on.
- Provided funding to Soul Sisters – Empowering women (DAV community group in Rochdale).
- Provided Community Development support to Agnew Triangle Community Group.
- Secured DWP funding for 2 new Community Investment Assistants as part of the Kickstart initiative.
- Offered direct support for our tenants including access to Money Advice, support into employment and training and counselling services.
Figures for April - September 2021
