Hundreds more tenants across the East of England are to benefit from tenancy and independent living skills as East Anglia-based social enterprise Your Own Place offers its workshops to four housing associations who are part of the Independent East group.

After the success of providing support via their uniquely engaging Tenancy and Independent Living Skills (TILS+) workshops with Saffron Housing Trust tenants last year, the workshops are now being offered to the tenants of Freebridge Community Housing, Orwell Housing, and Broadland Housing Association.

Starting in January, the workshops will be a mix of digital and face to face at locations across Norfolk and Suffolk, providing opportunities for people of all ages to develop and build on existing skills. The workshops cover a wide range of topics, such as - saving and budgeting, self-care, wellbeing, and digital skills - with the aim of making a positive difference to the lives of tenants through developing confidence and resilience.

The partnership with Your Own Place is an exciting collaborative initiative for Independent East with the aim of helping more people into employment, reducing rent arrears, and reducing potential future evictions.

CEO of Your Own Place, Rebecca White, said: “We're absolutely delighted to be working not just with the residents of four regional housing associations, but with four housing associations that want to collaborate, support residents from across East Anglia and recognise that our Tenancy & Independent Living Skills Plus (TILS+) are beneficial for any person in any situation. We know that the residents we work with are experts in their own lives, we respect their experiences and contributions and love the two-way learning. Fun, participative and engaging workshops will be delivered with 400 tenants during 2022 across eight different locations - with the aim of building the skills to be happy in their homes and ultimately prevent homelessness.”

Sophie Bates, Director of Customer and Communities at Freebridge Community Housing, said: “Providing support to people to help sustain their tenancies is a hugely important part of what we do at Freebridge, and a key objective of our current five-year strategy – Building Better Futures. We are extremely pleased to be working in partnership with Independent East and Your Own Place to maximise the opportunities available to our customers to make a success of their tenancies. The investment in this partnership will see additional support provided to those who need it, which will in turn help prevent tenancy breakdowns and reduce homelessness.”