Our Main Services:

Our main service is our bi-lingual Welfare and Benefit Advice Service, delivered in Bangla and Urdu to meet the needs of the local community. This service is delivered as a drop-in twice a week, and for individual pre-booked appointments twice a week. Each session is 10am to 2pm. On average we work with 15 people per week, and saw 85 people between January to March this year. We anticipate that demand will continue to be high from April due to the increase in Council Tax and the cap on energy bills increasing. The majority of people we support are Bangladeshi men aged 60 and over. The area of support most requested is with Universal Credit (UC) applications, followed by housing related issues and Council Tax support.

Employment support: we offer a weekly support session where we provide individual support to people with their UC work search. This can be to support people to set up their online account and learn how to log their work search activity, support to set up job searches on digital jobs boards or support to create CVs. Many of our beneficiaries lack the digital skills necessary to

comply with this aspect of their UC claim; lack access to laptops or tablets; or lack data. We work with up to 5 people each week

Ladies Wellbeing Group: we started to deliver regular, weekly evening sessions in January this year, delivered by one of our female trustees. Sessions start with coffee and a chat, and some board games including traditional South Asian games such as carrom. We have also had some cooking sessions and are planning on doing some physical activity sessions such as Zumba and walking once the weather is warmer in the evenings. To date, our average attendance is 15 ladies.

Over 50s lunch club: this is a self-funded, weekly social activity for men. This is an opportunity for men to socialise over a meal, and to offer each other peer support. Many attendees live alone and, as such, eat the majority of their meals alone. Some older attendees don’t cook themselves a hot meal, either because they don’t know how or because they feel that it’s not affordable. We aim to remove the stigma of food poverty by making sure that the sessions feel like a social activity, rather than a food handout. On average we have 15 attendees per week.

Gardening Group: we are fortunate to have an allotment space where our group grow their own vegetables and herbs. Most attendees are women, and most are from low income families or are retired. The group promotes wellbeing through time spent outside in nature; learning new skills and spending time with others. There are 15 group members in total.

Health and Wellbeing Days: we facilitate awareness events where we bring together health professionals from the Northern Care Alliance and VCSE organisations to focus on particular health issues including bowel cancer; cardiovascular disease and gynaecological health. There is a presentation focussing on a key theme, and the chance for attendees to ask questions. Organisations have advice and information stalls to raise awareness of symptoms as well as offering support with smoking cessation.