Over 70 residents and staff came together in July for WHA’s 12th Annual Conference and Chief Executive, David Cummins opened the event by talking about the ambitions he has for the future of WHA and how things may change and move forward over the coming months and years.
Dawn Walton from Warrington Borough Council’s Trading Standards then gave a very informative presentation about the dangers of scams and how anyone can be scammed either on the doorstep, on the telephone or through email. She provided everyone with some great tips of how we can avoid being scammed and taken in by tricksters.
Lali Kelly from Alzheimer’s Society, provided some excellent and interactive Dementia Friends training that tenants and staff all got involved with. Despite being in the conference room, Lali provided a great training session that got people working in pairs and small groups, allowing them to learn and enhance their knowledge of dementia. At the end of the session 65 attendees registered to become dementia friends which is a great result from the training session and for the conference.
At this year’s event we brought in the ‘Information Hub’, which was a small separate space where a number of different services promoted themselves and provided support, information and advice. Stall holders included the Alzheimer’s Society, Age UK Merseyside, LifeTime and WHiA alongside WHA’s Property services team, our Money Advice Officer and the WHA Scrutiny Panel. Attendees that went into the ‘Information Hub’ were impressed with the information available and felt that it added a little something extra to the conference. The Information Hub was open through the conference and attendees were encouraged to go in both before and after the formal presentations.
The event concluded with a scrumptious buffet of sandwiches, pastries and cakes while the attendees were entertained by swing, jazz and vintage vocalist Cat Morewin.
The day was a great success and enjoyed by all those that attended.
