As a local Citizens Advice office, we are an independent charity that must raise our own funds. Our appeal runs until December 2024 with our target of £20,000. The funds will be used to support our essential face to face advice services which are the first port of call for Brighton & Hove’s residents in the current cost-of-living crisis.
We are asking your help to ensure we can keep guiding the most vulnerable residents of Brighton and Hove towards the help they need during this ongoing cost of living crisis by helping us hit our campaign target.
Rising costs for volunteer training, office expenses, and staff wages mean we need your support to continue helping over 5000 hard working and caring people like Elaine who, through no fault of their own, are struggling to find a way forward.
Elaine* came to us in despair as a single mother who worked part time and also cared for her elderly mum. Elaine was sliding into debt as her bills kept rising. Our highly trained volunteer adviser identified that she was entitled to a weekly carers’ benefit. Our assistance transformed Elaine’s budget, alleviating her stress so she could focus on supporting her children and mother. This increased her weekly budget by almost £70 per week. That lasting solution was possible because we were there.
Our help transformed Elaine’s budget. It removed a stress that had been dragging her underwater when she really needed her energy to support her children and her mother.
Our client feedback:
Our advisor was great at keeping in contact and calling back to assess what help we required as the issue progressed. They were conscientious and seemed to really care about our issue. Thank you.
Our dedicated volunteers give over 19,500 hours per year, equivalent to just over 10 full-time advisers. Their commitment is immense. Each volunteer undergoes comprehensive training, investing around 2 weeks full time or 6 weeks part time. Moreover, regular ongoing training ensures our advisers stay sharp and on top of policy changes.
Volunteers benefit from the supervision of a paid expert adviser on every shift. Each 5-hour Advice Session Supervisor costs £100 and can support up to 8 volunteers. Funding an additional session helps us support extra 40 clients per session. Your help through our appeal will ensure that volunteers continue to offer their time and knowledge to our community through proper support, supervision and advice quality.
We are one of very few face-to-face services our clients can access as more and more statutory services and businesses like insurance and banking go “online only” excluding some of our most vulnerable residents who find it more difficult to find a way forward by themselves.
Retaining our drop in sessions is therefore more critical than ever, but it does come at a cost. Each shift a paid supervisor will support up to 8 volunteers. Our volunteers go through intensive training and ongoing quality checking to ensure that every client we see has accurate advice and options for them to move forward in their life.
Our Chief Officer, Jo-Anne Carden said:
For Elaine, for the thousands of other clients arriving at front door annually, help us to guide them into our service this year and let us do what we do so well. Help us hit that £20,000 target by Christmas 2024.
*Elaine is not the client's actual name - we change names of clients in publicity to protect their privacy
* Charities pay a small fee for our service. Find out how much it is and what we do for it.
