'I never would have managed it without the support and help I received from the Supporting People programme'...

My name is Kerry Manning and I’m a former client of the Wallich in Park Street, Bridgend. I came to live in Wales from Northern Ireland in July of 2010 as a result of domestic violence. When I first came to Wales, I was in Women’s Aid for seven months before I got my own property for me and my two children. I was extremely lonely and my children were living in squalor as I couldn’t afford to decorate or buy things for my home. I was in a desperate state of depression and had no one to turn to as I have no family in Wales.

I then met the man who turned out to be my now husband but my life went downhill even more as he is an alcoholic. I ended up drinking with him and our problems just got worse. We were fighting to the point where the police were called and social services were called for the safety of my children.

I was at my lowest ebb and ended up taking an overdose - I just couldn’t see any way out at all.

Then I started working with a fantastic network of people who just wanted to help me. They referred me to the Wallich and my life has just got better and better. I was allocated a support worker from the floating support team named Ashley and she has done amazing things for me. At one point social services had given me six months to change my home or my children would have been taken into care.

Ashley came on board and helped me apply for benefits that I was entitled to and helped me get grants to get flooring and normal things like wardrobes for my children. But most of all, she was there for me just to chat to if I just needed to scream at someone.

It was a long hard road at times, especially when I was going to my social services meetings. Just having Ashley there for support was a huge godsend for me and my children. Then Ashley moved to another project and I was really worried in case I had no one to turn to, but I didn’t have to worry because my next support worker, Siobhan, just took over where Ashley left off. The Wallich made changeovers of support workers as easy as possible for me.

As time went on I felt my confidence getting better. I decided I would like to do volunteer work and I was offered to do it at the Wallich. I then began to volunteer in the drop-in a couple of mornings a week.

The past year has been the hardest of my life but also the best. I never would have managed it without the support and help I received from floating support (funded by the Supporting People programme). I can guarantee that I would be on the streets and my children would have been taken off me and placed into care. And now, a year on, I’m no longer a client. I’m a single mum now but it’s all for the best for myself and my children.

I’m now volunteering three days a week with the Wallich and I enjoy every minute of it. I never ever thought I would see me doing this, but the support and help I’ve had from floating support saved me and my family and I would really like to help people in similar circumstances. Without the support and help from floating support, I know I would not be where I am today. I am now at a point in my life where I can see a happy future for me and my children. My confidence has soared tenfold and my children are happier than they have ever been, all thanks to the help I have received. I can never thank them enough. And even though I am no longer a client, the team are still there for me, pushing me to my strengths and helping me achieve my goals.

Hopefully the next step now is to actually work for them as gratitude for everything they have done for me and my children, and also help other families in the same situation that I was once in.

Kerry Manning
Volunteer at The Wallich 

#HousingDay - Tanya's story

In 2001, Tanya MacGregor was a domestic abuse victim and homeless mother-of three. However, today, she is living proof of how the social housing sector can transform lives for the better.

Tanya has gone full circle from being homeless and in the depths of domestic abuse despair to gaining a degree and winning numerous awards. She is now giving back and providing life-changing help to others via the Your Benefits Are Changing (YBAC) campaign run by Community Housing Cymru (CHC).

She said: “It’s amazing the opportunities that social housing has provided for me and my family. I went from being homeless with a young family to finding my way to getting a home, which in turn allowed me to access services, health, a degree, a job. None of this would have been possible without social housing.

“The effect on my family has been transformational. I now work full time helping others to get their houses in order as a money adviser with YBAC. My eldest son completed a degree, my daughter went to college and now works full time, and my youngest is now doing his GCSEs. I couldn’t have even imagined all this a decade ago.

“Without a home, you can’t get access to anything - you don’t exist. Social housing has given me and my family the chance to lay down roots and better ourselves.

“Social housing is a comfort blanket – it allows people access to affordable rents and the chance to re-train and go out to work. We would not have achieved what we have as a family without social housing; we would have been pushed from pillar to post. Social housing has been our safety net and I hope as many people can benefit from it in the same ways that my family and I have.”

More than a decade ago, the married mother became homeless after deciding she could no longer put up with the beatings she was enduring from her then husband.

Overnight, she went from being a homeowner to homeless, with nothing more than a full carrier bag to her name. With her three young children - aged nine, six and five-months old - she took refuge in a women’s hostel.

Tanya spent a year classed as homeless in the hostel run by Cardiff Women’s Aid and owned by United Welsh. During this time she was able to re-build her confidence and take stock of her situation, all the while making friends with fellow victims of domestic abuse staying at the hostel.

Tanya's time in the hostel also started her journey into adult learning with her undertaking a basic skills and IT course along with a Maths course, initially so that she ‘could help her young son with his homework’.

Shortly afterwards, she joined the Board of Management as a committee member/service user and got involved in a Tenant Empowerment Grant scheme. In doing this, Tanya began her ‘giving back’ - using her own experiences to help others suffering as a result of pre or post domestic abuse issues. The tenant service user group offered friendship, craft and DIY classes. It also gave women mental support and well as technical and practical skills, advice, help and, just like Tanya - hope for the future.

Tanya remained a board member for four years, her own experience being a remedy to help others and herself on the road to recovery.

Tanya and the group’s efforts were praised and the model won an award for Good Practice by the Welsh Assembly.

Around this time, Tanya’s confidence and circumstances had improved greatly. She and her young family were rehoused by Cardiff Council and she enrolled on a Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and Policy Degree at UWIC. During her first day she spotted two other familiar faces in the class. Recalling that time, she said: “Two of my classmates were ladies from the refuge and now they both work in the housing sector, like me.”

On the back of her adult learning success, Tanya won the All Wales Housing Manager Local Council Academic Achievement Award, the 2008 CIH Welsh Student of the Year and the 2008 CIH National Student of the Year Award, which lead to her taking part in the prestigious Tri-Countries Conference in Canada.

In 2008-2009, Tanya worked at Rhondda Housing Association as Tenancy Support Officer. Her housing degree dissertation was about Older People in Extra Care which she did for another housing association - Linc Cymru. The subject theme became particularly poignant in 2009 when Tanya decided to take a break from work to care for her parents who were both suffering with Alzheimer’s disease.

Tanya aged 48, said: “It was a difficult time, but as my dissertation was about the same issues I felt I was equipped to fight for the rights of my parents and sort everything out. I was juggling the care of my parents and the care of my young family.”

In 2010 Tanya decided she wanted to get back into work on a part time basis and gained a six month position with Cadwyn Housing through the job centre scheme, Go Wales, doing admin for the HA Tenant Participation and Financial Inclusion arm.

Tanya said: “I was feeling down about my circumstances with my parents’ illness and going back to work gave me renewed confidence. This was down to the organisation's managers and staff and support for my situation. They had fundraising events for Alzheimer’s society.”

From 2011 until today, Tanya has been employed as one of the YBAC Money Advisors at CHC, set up to help distribute information about Welfare Reform.

Courtesy of CHC, she gained a MA qualification from Staffordshire University.

Tanya completed an evaluation for Rhondda Housing Association on the Financial Inclusion project. Also, as part of YBAC, Tanya has provided advice sessions for a number of housing associations and attended CHC’s YBAC campaigning events on behalf of tenants.

Tanya said: “Housing Associations are not in the business of evicting people so the work I do is helping people to get their house/home finances in order. I know only too well how hard it can be. I’ve been there and the advice I was given was invaluable, so I hope I can repay the favour by helping others.”


Tanya MacGregor
Money Adviser, CHC