Kingdom Housing Association tenants have celebrated their first Winter Gathering with an event at the Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline.
Tenants converged on the Gathering from Tullibody, Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy, Methil, Guardbridge and Upper Largo.
The event kicked off with lunch and a live music performance, with some of the audience taking to the dance floor.
The main purpose of the event was to promote the benefits tenants can gain from being more involved in the work of social landlords and to provide information to help them sustain their tenancies, or to assist their health and well being.
A series of workshops were held in the afternoon. One was delivered by Tony Kelly, from TPAS Scotland, where residents were able to discuss some of the recent changes introduced by the Housing Scotland Act 2014 to Social Secure Tenancies.
Another informative workshop focused on tenant participation and three delegates from Aberdeen City Council delivered a very interesting workshop about their own tenant participation journey, including discussion on the barriers they had to overcome.
Exhibitors included support service for Dementia and Alzheimer issues.
The Gathering included an interactive quiz led by Matthew Busher, Kingdom’s head of housing.
He explained: “The feedback from most questions will contribute to our review of our Allocations Policies and will improve the housing application process in some of the geographical areas where Kingdom operates.”
Max Scotto, Kingdom’s tenant participation officer, concluded the afternoon and said: “Thank you to all the participants who attended and for making this, our first Winter Gathering, a very enjoyable and successful one. I‘d also like to thank all the members of Kingdom’s Scrutiny Panel for the valuable contribution they make to our work.”
Tenants were asked to give anonymous feedback about the Gathering, with comments received including:
“I have enjoyed the event. I found it to be very informative and helpful… I don’t think it could be improved.”
“The workshops were very interesting. I did not realise all the work which goes on.”
“A very interesting and informative day. Great to be able to voice an opinion. Look forward to the next event.”
“I enjoyed today. Very informative and well worth taking the time out.”