Join Our Annual User Survey

posted: 18/02/2011

Please take part in our annual service user survey. George House Trust encourages people using our services to give us any feedback on your experiences, to help us improve and develop the support we offer.

Please take a few moments to answer this yearly survey about our services.

We most want to hear about the services you used in the last 12 months.

One of our questions asks you to describe the difference our services have made to you. Our funders (and we) are always very interested in people’s answers to this.
 

TEN £20 Shopping Voucher Prizes 

We have 10 £20 prizes of high street store vouchers for people who take part. Everyone who gives us a phone number or contact details will go into the prize draw. We will then ring the ten winners. You need to take part before Monday 4 April, when the survey and prize draw will close.

Confidential
Our survey is completely confidential. The survey is on a secure website with a safe ‘https’ address, like the banks use.
 

Survey on paper too
If you can’t do the survey on computer, please ask for a paper copy - ask Lynda Shentall, Director of Services, or call 0161 274 5652.

You can download the survey as a pdf you can print here. 

Asking you about our services every year
Every year we run this service user survey to ask people what you think of the services you use at George House Trust. This survey is just one way of finding out what you think.
You can also tell us what you think by making comments through our website, using our suggestion box in reception, at the peer support service review meetings, and through the service user group, SMART (The Service Monitoring and Review Team).
 

Take part in our survey

Read the results from our 2010 survey

George House Trust's AGM and Annual Report

posted: 30/09/2010

George House Trust held a well attended Annual General Meeting on 23rd September 2010. Members elected our new Board of Trustees: Steven Ainscow, Kate Alcock, David Borrow, Paul Fairweather, Tony Harrison, Damian Kelly, Adela Mugabo, Stewart Murau, Joe Philips, Leo Platt, David Teasdale and Jim Vann.

The meeting also approved amendments to George House Trust's Aims and Objectives set out in our Memorandum & Articles of Association. Our revised Aims and Objectives are:

•  to support people living with and affected by HIV in the North West of England through the  delivery of responsive and relevant services
• to deliver interventions to help prevent the transmission of HIV
• to campaign and educate to bring an end to HIV related stigma and discrimination

George House Trust's 2009-2010 Annual Report is now available. Last year, we delivered over 15,964 services, excluding email and postal services, to over 2000 people living with or affected by HIV. You can read highlights from the year by downloading our Annual Report here.

Find Out About Membership

posted: 14/06/2010

Thursday 1 July is the date for people who use our services and volunteers to find out about becoming more involved in George House Trust. People using services and volunteers are warmly invited to come and find out more on Thursday 1 July from 5.30pm. You could become a Member. Our membership is free.

Finding Out About Membership is on Thursday 1 July

• refreshments and snacks start at 5.30pm
• the talk and your questions begin at 6
• we will finish by 7pm.

George House Trust is a membership organisation. Members are the people who come to our Annual General Meeting and elect our board of trustees. This board then oversees and steers what we do. Members are the people who can also become trustees on the board.
 

Members Vote
Members also vote on any major strategic decisions for the organisation, either at the Annual General Meeting, or at any special meetings that might be called during a year.
 

Whether you are electing trustees or voting on major strategic decisions, being a member gives you the chance to influence what we do.
 

This event is all about telling you more and answering your questions. You will be able to meet existing trustees and members.

Below we explain in more detail what it is all about for those who are really curious or for people who cannot come to the meeting on Thursday 1 July.

Applying to become a member
To become a member you would need to:

• Use George House Trust services (this includes HIV positive people, carers, family) OR
• Be a current volunteer who is actively involved in the organisation AND
• Able to attend the Annual General Meeting, or to vote by post AND
• Support the aims and objectives of George House Trust.

We need people who know enough about us, support our work, are actively interested in our future, and are able and willing to come to the Annual General Meeting (or vote by post).

You can download the membership forms here:

• Membership information
• Application form
   

Two thirds of our members are living with HIV
We work to make sure that two-thirds of our members are people living with HIV.
We want about 100 members, and will pull names from a hat if too many people apply. We want a good balance of members to represent all our service users and volunteers.
 

Summer Members selection
We only appoint new members once a year – you must apply to be a member by Friday 30th July. By 20 August you should have the written answer to your application.
 

If you have any questions on membership please email 
 

What You Said About Our Services

posted: 14/05/2010

We asked you about your experience of our services earlier in the year and this is what you told us. We used the online SurveyMonkey service and this worked really well.

Almost 200 people have a say
197 people completed the survey and there was a relatively good spread across NW England, as well as from the various groups of people using our services.

Overwhelmingly positive
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with some really useful suggestions for learning, development and action. You gave us a lot of feedback and we really welcome all the comments and ideas.

Some statistical highlights
A massive 95.9 % rated their overall satisfaction with services as either excellent / very helpful, or helpful.

77.5 % said that George House Trust either fully or mostly met their needs as an HIV positive person.

85.6% of people were very or quite satisfied that an issue or problem had been dealt with well by staff.

A massive 97.6% found the staff very helpful  or helpful.

Volunteers also produced excellent satisfaction levels - 88% found volunteers very helpful  or helpful .

Impact highlights
76.8% of people said that using George House Trust services had improved their health and well being a lot, or to some degree.

77.7% of people said that using George House Trust services had helped increase confidence a lot, or to some degree.

87% of people said using George House Trust had increased their awareness of HIV and related issues.

47% had been helped to try volunteering, education and employment opportunities.

Findings and suggestions included

• Development of gay men’s space
• Services for people in employment
• What is there for people living further afield?
• Valuing the services and support available
• The positive impact of services
• The high value placed on one to one support
• The value of financial support received through George House Trust

Action ideas
Many people made comments on services or areas for development, and some of the suggestions for action are :

• Conduct more research into what employed people want from GHT. If you are interested in being involved in this please let Lynda Shentall know by email, or phone on 0161 274 5652
• Be clearer about what we can offer people who live further away
• Better publicity and communication – we will make improvements on the way we communicate with service users, and make sure everyone has the chance to use everything that is open to them
• Closing the counselling list for a time. Your survey feedback told us queuing a long time for counselling was stressful. So we have reviewed the service and closed the waiting list for now. We will work through the list and meet the needs of people who have waited a long time.
• Gay men’s space actions for improvement.

Winners of prize vouchers
The 5 winners of the £20 high street vouchers have now received their prizes and our thanks also go to everyone who took part.

Want to know more?

If you want to discuss the survey feedback or to know more then please contact Lynda Shentall Director of Services at George House Trust by email or phone 0161 274 5652.

Drug Company Money - No Thanks

posted: 16/10/2009

The debate about whether George House Trust should change its long-standing policy of not taking funding from drug companies ended with a very clear vote against this, from the Annual General Meeting last night. 85% of the voters at the Annual General Meeting rejected the proposal to consider accepting funding from the major drug companies.

There was a clear feeling that we should keep our moral stance and retain our principled opposition, so we are seen to be clearly independent of drug companies in our advice, information and other work. 

George House Trust will write a clear policy on refusing drug company funding and how this fits with our core values, and promote this in our publicity and to potential funders.

Elections and Accounts

Annual General Meetings are about elections and accounts too - so the accounts were accepted and the re-appointment of auditors was approved, and trustees were elected to serve on the board.

We would like to give our appreciation and thanks to Trustees who have stood down from the board: Jonathan Atkin, Agnes Kuzoraunye, Mervis Makhaza. 

Trustees for 2009-10

Reappointed, are trustees:

• Steven Ainscow
• Gerwyn Knight
• Deborah Mgijima
• Stewart Murau

New trustees:

• Paul Fairweather
• David Teasdale
• Jonathan Watts

Trustee Officers 

• Chair - Jim Vann,
• Treasurer - Colin Davies,
• Vice Chair - Damian Kelly

We have advertised for two external trustees and the outcome of this process will be announced at a later date.

Image credit from The Rag Blog