Citizens Advice Bureau reaching more people through churches

Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is enlisting the help of churches to make it easier for people to access its services.

The organisation wants to use more churches to provide face to face advice in the local community, cutting down on the significant distances users may have to travel.

The change will ease access for those living in remote communities in particular.

Citizens Advice has produced Faithful Advice, a guide for places of worships in setting up advice sessions in their buildings.

The organisation says that, with public sector cuts, churches have a vital role to play in offering premises for advice sessions, particularly where there are no alternative sites available locally.

The Rt Rev John Gladwin, former Bishop of Chelmsford and Chair of Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) said: “In an era when the demand for advice services is increasing and funding cuts may result in advice outreach locations such as libraries facing closure, advice agencies must find cost effective ways of ensuring people can get the face to face advice they need.

"By working with faith organisations, Citizens Advice Bureaux have already established partnerships which enable them to reach out and provide advice services to some of the most vulnerable and disengaged sections of our communities.”

The guidelines have been drawn up with the help of the Church of England, the Church Urban Fund, and Methodist and United Reformed Churches.

It features case studies based on examples of churches that have already pioneered advice centres in their buildings.

These include Spilsby Methodist Church in Lincolnshire, which secured funding to develop part of the church as a community centre with interview rooms, a community area, kitchen area, toilets, now being used by the East Lindsey CAB.

The upstairs of the church was also converted into a "Bunk Barn" offering basic accommodation to tourists as part of the project, which also involved partnering with the Church of England and Age UK.

In the market town of Wooler, the United Reformed Church there hosts the Berwick CAB, 25 miles away from the nearest main bureau.

Graham Jones, Rural Officer for the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church said: “There are already some excellent examples of churches collaborating with CAB to deliver face to face advice services to less accessible communities.

"Our hope is that these guidelines will help develop this relationship and lead to a growing number of churches acting as partners and hosts in this way.

"Building on previous guidelines encouraging churches to host post offices and community shops, here is further evidence of the churches’ commitment to playing their part in meeting the needs and challenges of rural and isolated communities.”