About Us: History of the Trust:
Formerly known as the Wimborne Area Housing Association, East Boro was conceived by Peggy Bartley, a local doctor’s wife, in 1960 and began its roots in the heart of Wimborne Town with the aspiration of meeting the housing need of local people.
- The first property at Station Road in Wimborne, then the old Bakehouse, became home to married couples and from thereon in the Trust developed its property portfolio.
- In the mid seventies the Wimborne Area Housing Associaion merged with Cranborne Housing Association, at which point East Boro as is it known today was born.
- In 2006 East Boro became Corporate Trustees of Cyril Wood Memorial Trust, a sheltered housing scheme in Bere Regis, Dorset, which provides accommodation specifically for retired artists, writers, painters, muscians and crafts-people.
- Over the years East Boro has continued to grow and in 2010 the Trust remains a local Wimborne company committed to providing housing for local people.
- Today the East Boro owns and manages over 40 housing schemes across the Dorset area, which equates to 340+ units of accommodation, specialising in housing and support services for the sheltered elderly, adults with learning disabilities and other vulnerable client groups in social housing need.
- In addition to its core tenant base, East Boro also offer services to a wider customer base to provide housing related support to people living in their own homes in Bournemouth and Poole through the Handy Van Repair Service, Visiting Support Service, Poole Safer Homes Project, its Housing Related Support Service for people with physical disabilities and Handy Van Security Service.
- In the delivery of these services East Boro prides itself on the close working relationships with all the district councils in Dorset, including Dorset County Council, the Borough of Poole and Bournemouth Borough Council as the key Local Authorities in the region.
- East Boro is also a member of the Source Development Partnership, a development consortium in which local housing associations work together to ensure housing need is met and through which consortia members like East Boro apply for Government grant funding for new housing developments.
In the Trust's Golden Jubilee year, Chief Executive Kevin Hodder says: "As a specialist supported housing provider East Boro aims to continue Peggy Bartley’s vision for many years to come. Both the Trust’s Board of Management and entire staff team strive to achieve this and we look forward to the new decade and further still, to the challenges of the next fifty years! From the one young mother that inspired Peggy to found the Trust fifty years ago, East Boro now houses over 350 local people."
