The flags were out on Friday here at Fortunatus for the launch of the website, ‘Engage’ App and our Unity lottery. I was so proud and pleased at the turnout of people that came to support us and it was great to chat to some of our colleagues from our industry who seemed impressed with what we had to show them. We were also joined by some of our local Police Community Support Officers who commented that what we offered our tenants was great and how they can see the App really working for them. Good to know! The local press were here also reporting on the event so keep an eye out in the Warrington Guardian. The day ended on a high and I also did a speech which was well received, I am so excited at where we are going with Fortunatus! Mind you, Julian and I had a lot of tidying up to do on Saturday so perhaps not every week!

The bank holiday weekend was busy (as usual) but rewarding. Julian spent most of the weekend in the garden and I have to say, he’s done a brilliant job, it looks beautiful. We also went to a christening on Sunday and I had made the christening shawl which was proudly displayed on show in the church by our good friends. It’s nice to make something like that for someone especially something as special as a christening shawl. It’s something they can keep forever and it’s lovely to know that I have played a part in their special day.

This coming week is going to be a busy one. I’m going to attend an exhibition in Liverpool called ‘Mental Distress in a Digital Age’. The exhibition explores the complex relationship between technology, society and mental health.   Anything like this is relevant to what we do here at Fortunatus so I am looking forward to it. I’m also ‘on call’ for my amateur dramatics society to help out back stage and generally be an extra pair of hands.

Make sure you have a look at our app ‘Engage’ this week if you can. I think you’ll be impressed!! And, keep checking the website, we’ve made some changes (and making more) and you can now view one of properties!

Bye for now,

Catherine.

I had a stand off with an Iguana the other day. No no… this isn’t the start of a joke (why did the Iguana cross the road .. etc etc)… Julian and I went to the Stratford Butterfly Farm as part of my birthday celebrations and mini-break. The thing was, this Iguana wouldn’t move away from the exit as we were trying to leave, Julian was trying to entice it away… funniest thing I have seen in a while and I wish I had taken a picture. All in all though the place was great and I had a great weekend with Julian and a wonderful birthday. It’s a great week to go to Stratford as it was Shakespeare’s birthday. I can highly recommend it.

Now the celebrations have passed for another year, which has flown by here are Fortunatus, we have big things happening here this week so all my efforts are going to be concentrating on the launch of the App ‘Engage’ and our Unity Lottery. Engage is exciting and we know this will work really well for some of our tenants who might not want to talk to someone but would rather use the app to report a problem they might be having. You can also use the app to look for cinema listing, local events … I’m really proud. Take a look, download it from the App store or Google Play.

http://www.fortunatushousing.co.uk/fundraising-and-events/engage-app/

I’m pleased to announce we also have two lottery winners here at Fortunatus this week thanks to the Unity Lottery (they said it won’t change them!). They only signed up a few weeks before so get signed up! £25,000 a week for 6 numbers and a nice cool £1000 for 5 numbers and so on! For every £1 you play, 50p comes to us. This money really helps our tenants. Take a look at the prize breakdown.   http://www.unitylottery.co.uk/how-does-it-work/

So, I’m off. Lots to do this week and not enough time. Still up to my eyes in crochet ducklings.

Catch you soon and I’ll let you know how the launch goes, and the ducklings!

Catherine x

So.. big changes since we last spoke……..

I’ve taken on a Communications Office to deliver our message to the world. We’ll be getting regular updates now on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ to name a few. The more people that hear about Fortunatus Housing the better, I’m determined to build this business and tell the world what we do. We’ve also got a great new newsletter and regular website updates.

Also, we have a new fundraising officer focusing on our Unity Lottery which will make a huge difference. For every £1 spent on the lottery, Fortunatus get 50p towards helping people we house. You can sign up via our website http://www.fortunatushousing.co.uk/fundraising-and-events/unity-lottery/ . £25,000 top prize, that would be nice!

This place is changing. New faces, new names, new conversations, it’s great. More members of the family!

We continue to strive to provide excellent living circumstances for all our tenants. We work with some great tenants, we really do. We are like one big family and it’s great to see people settled and living a more independent life with the help of our support team. The more awareness we can bring to the great work we do will really benefit the lives of vulnerable adults.

We are also in the process of organising a launch day for our new app ‘Engage’. Yes folks, we have an app! 2015, you are nobody if you don’t have this app and ours is killer! Tenants can use it to contact us, check local information and news. At the end of the day, everyone has a smart phone these days!

As for me, I’m not sure where I find the time for everything else. Would you believe that I have been asked to crochet twenty miniature ducks and twenty miniature frogs for my friends at the amateur dramatics society I’m in? As well as mermaid tail blankets, a christening shawl and woolly hats for the camping trip I’ll be going on with Julian. Julian’s hat will be a stag, I’ll be a bear. If you see us, please say hello!

Catch you later,

Catherine.

Good afternoon everyone.

A lovely, sunny bright (but cold) afternoon here at Fortunatus Housing Solutions.

We are all looking forward to Christmas and the Christmas Break. Although Fortunatus Housing Solutions is open to our tenants 24 hours, 365 days of the year, we have lovely firm called SPS who take care of our out of hours service. That means the rest of us can take a well-earned break and enjoy some quality time with our families.

Our Christmas decorations will be going up in the office on the 1st December, we are waiting until our Events Manager Sara’s birthday has been celebrated (29th November) and then the festivities can be begin.

November was a busy month, with our annual audit taking place (for the purposes of the charities commission) for a whole week. We had the lovely Tom and Stuart from Watkinson Black accountants on site and thankfully sailed through the audit.

My husband Julian (our Finance Manager) is sporting a rather jaunty moustache for November, as is our Health and Safety/Transport/Health and Safety Officer Gareth Langhorn and Ian Foster, one of our housing support officers.

I personally will be glad to see the back of Julian’s moustache, he currently looks like an extra in a World War I film.

November also saw the annual IRRV dinner dance in Chesterfield for the West Midlands Association. Julian and I attended along with some other Executive members to represent the Lancashire and Cheshire association and we stayed in probably one of the nicest hotels we’ve ever stayed in – The Casa Hotel in Chesterfield. Owned by a local business man, who also owns Global Brands, distributors of Amigos and Hooch beers. Julian was very happy to see Amigos on draught 🙂

I also appeared on stage in amateur dramatics as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz and landed a part playing the Wicked stepmother in Cinderella in February 2015 (typecast methinks)

The launch of our App ‘Engage’ is around the corner, we awaiting registration with Apple before we can encourage people to use it and with a free download and easily accessible forms, we know our tenants will be able to engage an interact with us via another medium that may suit them better than face to face or telephone contact.

Exciting times ahead!!

Catherine

Hello again and welcome to my blog.

I’m sat looking out of the office at a dark and dingy afternoon and can’t believe that it’s so dark and rainy. It doesn’t seem two minutes until we were still having sunny afternoons and sunny evenings.

Things have been really busy here this week. We’ve moved quite a few new tenants into properties, which means more vulnerable adults have been given homes for life and become part of our Fortunatus family.

Rachel, our Operations Manager is due to go on maternity leave at Christmas and is rushing around trying to get as many moves and problems sorted out as possible. We’ve just been feeling her bump to see if we can guess how big the baby is going to be!!!

Our Events Manager Sara is working hard on finishing her Introductory Certificate in Fundraising and has just sent in her last assignment. She is then starting on fundraising for our Coffee and Chat events and we’ll be announcing exciting news about a Unity Lottery, an online giving page and our new app very soon.

Christmas is round the corner and with November in full swing, our management accountant (my husband), our Transport and Warehouse Manager and one of our Housing Support Officer’s are all growing moustaches to raise awareness about men’s health this month.

Back to work now and thanks for reading!

Hello

My name is Catherine Nicholson and this is my very first blog.

I am the Managing Director of a small company in the North West of England. We house vulnerable adults with mental health problems in the community and offer then a Home For Life as long as they are in need of our services.

A bit about me…..I am 48 years old and have worked in Local Government all my life until 3 years ago when I decided to set up Fortunatus Housing Solutions

It has been an emotional journey and one that I didn’t always think would work out.

I will be updating my blog regularly to tell you about the journey to today and the exciting things that are happening now.

I hope you can follow me on this adventure

xxx