I started work for Three Rivers Housing Group in 1996, when I was employed as Project Assistant to work with a Project Manager and Technical Officer to set up and run a Care & Repair Home Improvement Agency in Easington District. Three Rivers had already established a similar project in Derwentside which had been running successfully for a number of years and the Easington agency was to offer a similar sort of service in the East Durham area. We were set up with support and funding from Three Rivers Housing, Durham County Social Services, the District of Easington Local Authority and central government grant. Our main role is to provide assistance to elderly, disabled and low income homeowners by helping them undertake essential repairs, maintenance and adaptation to their property. Many of the works are funded by local authority grant, although we also help clients to access benevolent fund and charitable donations towards the cost of work. I worked as the agency’s Project Assistant with responsibility for running the office until 2003 when a restructure within the organisation meant that an opportunity arose for me to apply for the new post of Project Co-ordinator at Easington. I was successful and I took up the post in June 2003. Being Project Co-ordinator has meant a complete change for me in terms of my duties and responsibilities. My principal duties now are project management, supervising and supporting the agency staff (Technical Officer and Administration Officer), casework, visiting clients to identify their housing needs, advising clients on the range of options available to them for financing works, and monitoring all stages of each case. As we deal mainly with vulnerable people in their own homes, especially the elderly and disabled, it is especially important to be able to deal sympathetically with their needs and to ensure that they are aware of what will be happening at every stage of the grant process. I find that the casework side of my job often proves to be the most rewarding in terms of being able to see the difference the work can make to allow the client to carry on living independently. Working as part of a small team of three means we have to be flexible in how we work together to achieve our objectives and the support of colleagues within the team is key to the agency’s success.