Making advice accessible
To achieve social justice people must be able to access the support they need to enforce their legal rights. The cost of transport, caring commitments or chronic ill health means that many people cannot easily access city centre services.
In 2009/10 4,500 enquirer contacts generated 6,700 new advice issues, nearly 1 in 5 of all the new problems we dealt with.
This was despite running a significantly reduced service due to the unfortunate ending of our long standing relationship with the city's Children's Centres and the decision not to continue our advice project working with GPs. However, the following advice projects target services to many of the city's most vulnerable residents and brought social justice closer to their neighbourhoods.
Bentilee:
We are delighted to continue our highly successful and effective partnership with the Stoke on Trent City Council and continue to offer advice as one of the range of services provided from the Bentilee Neighbourhood Centre (pictured above).
In 2009/10 another 3.500 new advice issues were tackled for the estate residents. 7 out of 10 issues related either to welfare benefits or to debt. This pattern has been repeated year on year and demonstrates the extent to which the poverty experienced by many residents of the estate continues to drive their demands for advice.
Residents using the service were £770,000 better off in extra welfare benefits we helped them claim. This is money that will be spent locally benefiting local businesses and the local economy in general.
Townsend:
Working closely with the Townsend Residents Association, who secured funding from Robbie Williams Give it Sum fund, we have been offering regular advice sessions in this community. Located on the edge of the Bentilee estate many residents struggle either to access the Bentilee Neighbourhood Centre or the city centre.
Consequently, offering sessions, including evening sessions in the community centre allowed us to reach people who we would otherwise not be able to help.
Cobridge:
2009/10 proved, sadly to be the final year of our Cobridge Advice Project working closely with community groups and residents associations in the Cobridge area we provided generalist advice to people from the local African Caribbean and south Asian communities, many of whom were unable to travel into the city centre because of their caring responsibilities or their own poor health.
Providing advice, almost literally, on their doorstep was the only way many people would access this essential service.
Unfortunately, at the end of the financial year the funders chose not to continue the service.
Abbey Hulton:
For 6 months from October 2009 to the end of March 2010 we ran several outreach sessions per week in the Abbey Hulton area. Working closely with community facilities such as the St Johns Welcome Centre we are able to bring valuable debt, benefits and other generalist advice to a community badly hit by the recession.
CAB advisers provided locally based expert advice to residents who had lost their job or were struggling to claim benefit or meet their financial commitments. For many residents the cost of travel into the city centre excluded them from getting advice on their legal rights by any other means.
Family Support Network:
The Family Support Network is a consortium of voluntary organisations led by Arch North Staffs who provide a co-ordinated and integrated support service to families with children at risk of going into care or who have recently left care.
We provide essential advice alongside a wide range of counselling, support and other interventions provided as a package to help families cope with a wide range of pressures.
"Many of the problems people face looking after their children are aggravated by practical, financial or legal problems. Struggling with debts or coping on a low income can be a major distraction from the demanding but essential job of raising children," said Health & Regeneration Manager Mary Tomkinson.
"We are delighted to have been involved in this project and have been able to demonstrate that voluntary sector organisations can work closely together to provide a much wider range of services and support to vulnerable people than any individual agency could on its own. This flexible and effective way of working really demonstrates the value of voluntary sector organisations," said Mary.
Residents Friends:
Stoke CAB's unique Residents Friend Project continues to provide an invaluable link between Renew North Staffs and the communities affected by regeneration.
The service is split between providing one to one advice and support to individuals directly affected by the proposals and supporting residents, collectively, to engage with the various consultation and master planning exercises.
"Major regeneration interventions like the Housing Market Renewal Programme inevitably have a huge impact on the lives of the residents affected by them. These impacts create a range of issues and problems with which many people, often elderly or vulnerable, need help and advice.
"Working closely with communities and regeneration professionals, Residents Friends are ideally placed to identify these problems and to help people resolve them.
"The large scale regeneration of parts of the city and the sustainability of the communities that are formed in regenerated areas are essential to the future success of the city," said Bureau Chief Executive Simon Harris.
"It is essential, therefore, that residents have a say in the shape and direction of their communities by participating in the process as far as possible, understand the implications for them personally and are able to deal quickly and effectively with the issues and problems that arise.
"Over the last 7 years we have demonstrated the value of this project and supporting both individuals and communities in successfully navigating the process and helping to build better and stronger communities," said Simon Harris.
Chepstow House:
Is a ground breaking partnership project led by Brighter Futures and funded by the Ministry of Justice. It offers a one stop shop service of support to women offenders.
Included within the range of support services is a dedicated CAB adviser based in the centre for 4 days a week.
"This is a new and exciting initiative which has the potential to make a serious contribution to helping women break the cycle of reoffending and establish a more settled and sustainable way of life," said Health Regeneration Manager Mary Tomkinson.
"Our experience of working with probation service clients shows how important it is that benefit and debt problems, in particular, are dealt with quickly and effectively to help ex offenders establish a more settled way of life and prevent them slipping back into previous patterns of offending behaviour, "said Mary Tomkinson. "We are delighted to be able to offer this service to a new group of people as part of a comprehensive package of support to give the women we see the best chance of turning their lives around."