For the community, by the community

Client: MOSELEY & DISTRICT CHURCHES HOUSING ASSOCIATION

Project: A tenant newsletter

Background: This Community Based Housing Association in Birmingham was keen to communicate direct with its tenants in a way which made them all feel part of a real community.

Objective: To fully involve tenants in their Housing Association through a community newsletter.

Our role: Word Association launched M&D News in 1998 and, since then, it has been produced on a regular basis three times a year so that tenants look forward to it arriving. By encouraging tenant contributions right from day one and providing tenant support, the newsletter has become a popular, well-read newsletter written by local people, for local people. Many contributions are received for every issue – from letters and poems to photographs and features. Tenants enjoy seeing their work in print and their submissions are of high interest to other local people.

Results: Newsletters often request tenant contributions but they are not often forthcoming. M&D News is special in that it is viewed by tenants as a real community newsletter which is written by themselves with support from Word Association’s newsletter experts.