Below you can find information on the management team within our Temporary Supported Housing service. 

Alison has worked within the homeless services for the last 25 years, incorporating domestic abuse services into her management since 2001.

She has worked for Orwell Housing Association since 2000, previously working for the YWCA which was transferred into Orwell’s ownership.

Qualified to DMS level and an accredited Domestic Abuse Service Manager, Alison continues to look for opportunities to improve and innovate our Homeless and Domestic Abuse services.

Alison is passionate about the services that she oversees and is very proud of the work undertaken by her teams to ensure that our services are person-centred and meeting the needs and aspirations of the customers we work alongside.

Phyl Chigome is the Service Manager for Christchurch house, which returns to Orwell Housing for the second time in 2017.

His mission as a manager is to inspire and nurture human spirit. He endeavours to achieve this by creating an environment at Christchurch house that is conducive for the customers to achieve their goals by allowing them to experiment, fail and learn from their life experiences in a non-judgemental way. He is also keen for his staff to express themselves while performing their roles by allowing them to personalise the support they offer to customers without the constraints of being judged. 

Away from Christchurch house, he is a volunteer one Saturday every month at his local charity shop. He is also an avid cyclist.

Karen Woodward is Service manager for Mulberry House, Warner Place and Hambling House which provides fully supported accommodation for the homeless and emergency temporary accommodation for families and single people in the Sudbury area.

Karen has over 20 years of experience working across the Health & Social Care sector. She holds a BTEC Higher National Diploma in Social Care which gave her a great understanding of the psychological aspects affecting homeless individuals and their families.

Karen has worked for Orwell for several years as a Support Worker in their temporary supported housing projects and has recently progressed to Service Manager where she is enjoying the daily challenges the role provides.

As a Service Manager, Karen assists staff to access full training to enable them to support residents to regain full independent lives at the end of their stay. 

In her spare time, Karen is a great lover of the outdoors, passionate about conservation and regularly enjoys spending time with her 6 dogs exploring the forest.

Hi I’m Dannie – I joined Orwell all the way back in 2005 and have never looked back. During the past 15 years I have been lucky to have a number of opportunities within Orwell managing services across its TSH profile.  The majority of my work, has however, focussed on supporting vulnerable families which is something I have always felt very passionate about.  I currently manage the Domestic Abuse services for Orwell along with juggling the demands of a young family – as you can imagine there are quite a few plates to juggle but I have always loved a challenge and enjoy every moment of it.

The reason I have remained with Orwell for so many years is because it is an organisation that has always focussed on the development of staff and its services and prides itself in being able to offer outstanding customer service.  It has also allowed me to work with people that have shared values and who are committed to working hard but also want to enjoy work and have some fun along the way.

Outside of work I love spending time with friends and family and like being in the outdoors walking and camping and as I said above I like a challenge so have just completed couch to 5k and I’m now considering 10K – never thought in a million years that I would become a runner!

Hello there!!

My name is Alison Richard’s, I started with Orwell Housing back in 2014 and cannot believe I am still here! I have always moved around in my career but strangely something changed! I do love working for Orwell and absolutely love my Job and the people I work with. I feel very privileged to be working with some wonderful people and being part of helping making a difference to people’s lives. 

One of the reasons I may still be here is, when I started working for Orwell as a Service Manager at Hinde House, two years on Orwell offered me the opportunity to manage another Service in Cambridge which I accepted, this gives me a lot of the variety I needed and keeps me extremely busy with the two Services!

Double the reporting, double the trouble, but that’s what I love about it. Not only that, I also managed to complete my Level 5 ILM qualification in Leadership and Management in June 2019, how I managed that I do not know!

I have always worked in a supportive role, from when I first began working in a Children’s home, to being a drug and alcohol worker to then working in Housing. I could not see myself doing anything else! I mean what else would I do?! I also achieved a counselling qualification back in 2008 which has been really useful.

But work is not my only passion, I love to cook and entertain, I am a very sociable person, my friends are always hoping for an invite so they can try one of my new recipe’s, always with lots of laughter round the dinner table.

My other passion is swimming, I tried running, that didn’t work and I wasn’t very good at it!  Then I discovered swimming and found that I am actually pretty good!

My other love apart from my wonderful family is my handsome little man Charlie (the Chihuahua) My daughter’s dog who left to live in Australia! (Broken my heart) Poor old Charlie missed his mum so now he has nanny looking after him! He has a great little character; I swear he thinks he’s human!