Our Hubs team ensure a safe space for our customers

We are pleased to announce that our Hubs and Facilities team are trained J9 Herts Sunflower Community Champions!

A tenant came to reception and said she was suffering from the domestic abuse and asked if we could help her. Unable to do more than searching online to find her help, it was clear our Hubs team wanted to do more to provide essential support to our vulnerable customers. 

The J9 initiative was developed in memory of Janine Mundy, a mother of two who was killed by her estranged husband in 2003 while he was on police bail and got its name from the way she used to sign off her messages: 'J9'.

The team completed a very emotional half-day training session in which the aim was to gain an understanding of domestic abuse, and how to offer a safe environment to listen and help victims by providing information and options for local support services.

All J9 Community Champions have a sunflower sticker on the window to let customers and people passing by know that this is a safe space. For us, our Leavesden Green Community Hub is our main J9 hub, however we also have resources available at our Gateway House office on Clarendon Road.

Our team said, “being a part of the J9 Champion/Herts Sunflower scheme has really opened our eyes to the problems many people face. We are proud to be able to offer the J9 service to the local community and for our hubs to be a safe space for everyone may need it.”

Please don’t hesitate to visit our j9 hub if you are in need of support. You can visit the Herts Sunflower website here for more information.