How Our Clients Can Achieve The Above

• Your right to be consulted: You have the right to be consulted in all support matters and decisions made with regard to the type of support offered to you. You will be given the opportunity to take part in personal support plan consultation and reviews. When ever possible the Ark will consult you in all matters relating to the support offered to you. You will be given the opportunity to influence and shape the design of your individual support plan
• Resident involvement and feed back: As a service user your views are welcomed and valued. There are a number of ways you may put forward your views and give feed back on the service the ArkAngel provides. You may put forward your views or feed back to all staff during the delivery of support services such as key work sessions, counselling sessions and through arranged meetings with the ArkAngel Manager. Tenant Meetings meeting are held on a monthly basis. At tenant meetings you may be involved in discussion and debate on ArkAngel service delivery
• Consultation in housing matters: This may include any idea's you may have about decoration, health and safety or new tenant inductions ect. This type of consultation can take place in tenant participation meeting as a group or as individual house meetings. You can call a house meeting at any time and staff will take all reasonable measures to meet your requirements
• By taking ownership and playing an active role in their care plan.
• To access provided information about professional agencies within the community
• To access provided information about education and other learning providers with in our community
• To be given access to information about Wirral Churches including policies and procedures and a formal feed back process to help with suggested comments or amendments identified
• Tenants participation forum to be provided to encourage the ArkAngel community to work together in a collective approach
• Wirral Churches to provide access to resources including stamps, paper, envelopes, pens, travel expenses, sign posting and other to enable the clients to play a role within our services

The Five Dimensions of Empowerment

The five dimensions below provide a framework for planning work which is empowering for communities, however 'community' is identified as whichever area of work is being planned. This can be applied to the individual or the tenants group as a hole. They can also be used as a framework for identifying indicators and evaluating the work, helping us to make judgements about whether the processes and outcomes are leading to/community/individual empowerment. They offer a broad and comprehensive definition of community empowerment.

Dimensions of Empowerment

Confidence: Working in ways which increase people's skills, knowledge and confidence, and instil in them a belief that they can make a difference.
Inclusive: Working in ways which recognise that discrimination exists, promote equality of opportunity and good relations between groups and challenge inequality and exclusion.
Organised: Working in ways which bring people together around common issues and concerns in organisations and groups that are open, democratic and accountable.
Co-operative: Working in ways which build positive relationships across groups, identify common messages, develop and maintain links to national bodies and promote partnership working.
Influential: Working in ways which encourage and equip our community to take part and influence decisions, services and activities.

What Empowerment means for staff

Development Values

Learning: Recognising the skills, knowledge and expertise that people contribute, building on these and what has gone before.
Equality: Challenging discrimination and oppressive practices within organisations, institutions and communities.
Participation: Facilitating democratic involvement by people in the issues which affect their lives based on full citizenship, autonomy and shared power, skills, knowledge and experience.
Co-operation: Working together to identify and implement action, encouraging networking and connections between communities and organisations.
Social justice: Enabling people to claim their human rights meet their needs and have greater control over the decision-making processes which affect their lives.

What this means for Wirral churches ArkAngel Supported Housing.

Tenants Participation

Starting up or becoming involved in a tenants group is one of the most effective ways to get involved in the housing service. Tenant participation is a two way process in which tenants are able to influence decisions and take part within Wirral churches supported housing.

Tenants groups can achieve a number of things from campaigning on certain issues to achieving change within their service. These groups consist of people who live within Wirral churches projects acting in a voluntary capacity to promote and defend the interests of tenants.

The purpose of this is to allow groups to effectively communicate within services, other agencies and tenants represented by the group. WC will assist the tenants group to make contact with the tenants information service (TIS). This is a national organisation which provides independent information, advice and training for tenants.