Helena Tenants Given Tools To Better DIY Skills

Published by Ashley M for Helena Partnerships in Housing

A North West housing association has been hammering home Do It Yourself tips to its tenants at an interactive skills workshop.

Helena Partnerships in Merseyside teamed up with a group of enthusiastic tenants to demonstrate how to carry out small repairs around their homes, covering everything from wallpapering and sealing to basic plumbing and tiling jobs.

The session was provided in a joint partnership between the Helena Homes and Helena Propertycare arms of the business in order to build the capacity of tenants and equip them with the skills and knowledge to complete basic home DIY tasks for themselves.

Becky Whittle, a young tenant who has recently moved into her first Helena home, found the session particularly useful. She said: “This is the first time I have lived by myself and I have never had to do any DIY before, so I found the idea a bit daunting. The DIY workshop gave me some great tips which will help when I start to decorate my own place so I’m looking forward to giving it a go now.”

Joanne McMahon, Community Engagement Project Officer at Helena, said: “It’s the first time we have run a DIY workshop for tenants and it proved to be a huge success – they relished the chance to learn new skills and this is something we hope will be hugely beneficial to them.

“It was a great opportunity for us to give something back to our tenants and we are hopeful this will also go a long way to reducing the amount of small repairs jobs we carry out in our homes.”

Helena Propertycare provided each tenant who completed the workshop with a free goody bag including tools and appliances to help with their home DIY tasks.