We want all TRAs to succeed in their role of representing the communities they are a part of.
A named Engagement Officer will be assigned to work with your TRA committee. This is your go-to person for questions, information and support.
Your Engagement Officer will:
- Attend your Annual General Meeting (AGM) to ensure the election process is followed by the committee.
- Attend the first meeting of the newly elected committee to provide advice and guidance, including questions about becoming a registered TRA and signpost to other housing service teams and key contacts.
- Provide governance advice and support and ensure your TRA receives a free annual verification of accounts from our independent consultant.
- Tell you when the next Housing Representatives Forum meetings are taking place and confirm with you who the named committee member will be who takes part in these.
- Provide dates for training sessions and help you to book on to these.
- Provide links to other TRAs for mentoring support and to share ideas and potentially work together on joint projects.
- Support with bid writing and applying for funding.
- Suggest ways that you can reach out to the communities you represent.
As your TRA is its own organisation there are some areas that your Engagement Officer can’t be involved in, however we can offer training and signposting to other support. These include:
- Agreeing roles and responsibilities and who will do what. The committee needs to come together to do this.
- Committee member disputes. It’s important that committees work together to resolve differences of opinion and find solutions to these. It is not H&F’s role to determine fault or decide a particular course of action to take.
- Recruitment to your committee. You will know your neighbours and the area you live in better that we do.
- Determining the area the TRA will represent. We can advise where there is already a TRA active in the area. It is then for the separate resident groups to come together and agree a way forward.
- Designing newsletters and flyers and running websites/ social media accounts. Please see training offer in this guide.
- Delivering letters or flyers to advertise your meetings and events. We can help with the printing but would also advise your TRA to invest in a printer so you can print posters to advertise meetings and events.
- Maintaining financial records and paying bills related to TRA activities.
- Arranging a meeting venue. If you live in an area that doesn’t have a community hall, we can signpost you to potential spaces to meet in, but then you will need to make the arrangements for this.
- Developing websites.
Training
We can provide a range of free training courses to unlock the skills needed to run a TRA successfully.
Training courses include:
- Committee role responsibilities and skills
- Team building
- Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
- Holding effective meetings
- Taking high quality minutes
- Presentation skills
- Understanding your TRA constitution
- Managing TRA finances and bid writing/applying for grants
- Creating newsletters and using social media
- Organising community activities
- First aid
- Food safety
- Running your community hall (if applicable)
Our training courses can be delivered in-person or online. We also have e-learning courses on our Get involved Hub at https://www. hfgetinvolved.org.uk/.
If there is a training or development option that your TRA needs that is different to those listed above, we can work with you to develop a tailored course.