A project designed to help prevent homelessness among vulnerable people in East Sussex has marked its second anniversary. Home Works was launched in 2009 to work with people aged 16 to 64 in their homes and help them address issues putting their housing at risk by developing the skills to live independently. Commissioned by East Sussex County Council, the project is delivered by Southdown and in two years 1,786 people have been supported in Eastbourne out of more than 5,500 across East Sussex, including 1,814 in Hastings, 952 in Lewes, 689 in Wealden and 600 in Rother. ...
18 Nov 2011
Southdown Housing Association this week beat off competition from a long list of well known UK companies and organisations into the top ten of Top Employers for Working Families. Hosted by the charity, Working Families, Southdown were ranked alongside companies that included American Express, Accenture, Barclays and KPMG and outshone the likes of Dell, Delloite and the Ministry of Justice. Southdown employs 750 staff, helping vulnerable and disabled people across Sussex live independently by supporting their employment, housing and care needs. HR Services Manager at Southdown, Janet Casserley, said: “None of what we do to support...
27 Sep 2011
Aideen Jones, Chief Executive of Southdown and her partner Denis opened their garden this year as part of the NGS Open Garden Scheme and on other days for other fundraising. (NGS supports an umbrella of various cancer and carer charities see link). Two Southdown projects benefited from this fundraising - Denis presented the Stay Up Late campaign with a cheque for £450 at their trustees meeting last week and Aideen presented Neil Blanchard with a cheque for £440 for the Southdown Service User Welfare Fund. Aideen said "It is great to be able to combine one of my passions with some...
6 Sep 2011
Southdown are launching a valuable new service from 1st August 2011 to provide specialist support to high risk victims of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) including hate motivated incidents in East Sussex. Commissioned by East Sussex County Council’s Safer Communities Partnership this new service is part of a wider trial by the government to develop new approaches to dealing with ASB, with Sussex Police being one of eight forces nationally selected to focus on improving the way that the police and partners focus on the needs of victims of anti-social behaviour. Our specialist support service is a 12 month pilot...
28 Jul 2011
Ten intrepid staff from Southdown took the plunge into the chilly waters of Dorney Lake in Windsor as part of the Mencap Mile on 24 July. The mile long open-water swimming challenge is the biggest event of its type on the Mencap fundraising calendar. Swimmers of all abilities took part and tested themselves at the Olympic and Paralympics venue to complete the mile within one hour and raise a minimum of £50. Southdown's teams raised a fantastic total of £2,213. Southdown Chief Executive, Aideen Jones, said: “ Although we are a not-for-profit organisation ourselves, our staff and service users are...
22 Jul 2011
Southdown’s Supported Employment department were recently approached to deliver training on “Employer Engagement” in partnership with the Centre for Mental Health in Norway. As one of the lead providers in the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Centre of Excellence programme, we were approached to deliver the training following feedback from the presentation delivered at this year’s annual IPS conference and a workshop at the British Association of Supported Employment (BASE) conference last year. The training was very positively received and translated well across the geographical and cultural divide, comments and feedback included “we learnt more in a morning...
23 Jun 2011
