The Trustees of Homeshare International have announced major changes to the Board. Rhian Bradley has stepped down as Chair having served in the role for more than four years. Rhian was uniquely qualified in the role, having been both a management consultant and homesharer/adviser to our founder, Nan Maitland. An outstanding Chair, Rhian steered us successfully through two World Homeshare Congresses (in Australia and Spain), supported us through a major status change and provided hands-on support to the Board.

“It has been a great privilege to chair Homeshare International,” says Rhian. “I have worked with some truly committed, inspirational people who are not only driving homeshare in their own countries but who are also generous in sharing their expertise with the wider homeshare community.”

Having lived in the UK and France for many years, Rhian has returned to Australia where most of her family live. She will be sorely missed but we wish her well in her ‘retirement’.

We warmly welcome Cheryl Snider as our new Chair. Cheryl is a leading light in homeshare in Canada. She too has been a homesharer, ran a homeshare programme for many years and now supports the homeshare community in Canada. Cheryl says: “I am looking forward to taking Homeshare International to its next stage of development. We face many challenges as a charity but there is much to celebrate. I am particularly looking forward to meeting many of you at the Congress next March (2019, in Brussels)”.

Hilary Todd has stepped down as a Trustee having been one of the charity’s founding members. A friend of Nan Maitland, Hilary joined the Board to manage our communications and she still runs our website in a voluntary capacity.

We are pleased to welcome three new members to the Board. Deborah Fox has played a big role in developing and supporting homeshare in the UK as she leads the Shared Lives Plus UK Homeshare Association. Régis de Kerautem is the President and co-founder, with his wife Claire, of homeshare in Belgium. Their programme 1Toit2Ages has spread from modest origins in Brussels to cover most of the country’s larger towns and cities. Marlene Welzl joined the Board in September 2017. She is the founder of a homeshare programme, WGE!-Gemeinsam Wohnen in her native Vienna.

Read more about our Board members.

Welcome to our new website – it’s not only a new design but has our gorgeous new logo and colours too! The content has been thoroughly updated so do explore:

• new pages for each country where homeshare programmes operate, some of them in two languages (Germany, Austria, France)
• an expanded FAQ section
• more information for practitioners in the Network section
• an expanded Resources section
• the ability to translate any page into any language, with Google Translate embedded in the footer
• a Facebook link on every page.

Warmest thanks go to our web designers Michael and Jack from Archetype Design who have been simply brilliant partners to work with.

Please send us your updates, news, photos, case studies, documents and insights for other members of the Network. Together we can make the website a really great resource for everyone.

Our friends at HANZA recently met Ken Wyatt, the Minister for Aged Care in Australia, to make the case for homesharing to be recognised as a ‘proper’ service for older people and people living with disabilities. Currently homesharing is not listed as a service in personal care plans and because it’s not listed, it isn’t available for people to purchase. The challenge was not only to get homesharing listed but also how to put a price on a service that isn’t being delivered by the hour. The meeting in Canberra covered the barriers to getting homesharing included on that list.

Ken Wyatt is very keen on services where “people look out for one another” and so was delighted to receive the delegation which included representatives from Victoria and New South Wales. The Minister’s closing remarks highlighted the importance of keeping the discussion going and  the group will re-convene in the New Year 2018 to review progress.

We have invited Beris Campbell to prepare a report on influencing policy that could be shared with other members of the HI Network.

Solidarios, our hosts in Madrid, have now posted up the presentations given at the congress in May 2017. Follow this link to find them:

www.hiworldcongressmadrid2017.org/en/materials/download-congress-materials/

The website also includes the photo gallery – a wonderful album that really captures the flavour of the event.

Solidarios has now also analysed the delegates’ feedback forms. We’re delighted to see that participants enjoyed the congress so much that most are now planning to attend the Brussels congress in 2019!