The aim of this fund is to embed holistic preventative support in places with existing ‘crisis offers’. Places with a ‘crisis offer’ could be a foodbank, a warm space, a community centre, or anywhere with a track record of providing an emergency support offer to people living in poverty.
The fund is to support these places to offer support to address the root causes of poverty and help people break cycles of poverty. Prevention can include advice, assistance with form filling, increasing digital inclusion, or a whole range of other offers.
Projects were required to fall within one or more of the following priorities:
- Embedding Holistic Support and Advice Alongside Crisis Support: Providing advice alongside crisis support such as about finances, benefits or housing
- Form Filling Assistance: Offer support for filling out forms, especially for disability benefits, or train volunteers to assist with form completion
- Digital Inclusion: Provide digital literacy training, multilingual digital training, or providing access to free Wi-Fi or expanding infrastructure such as Mesh networks
- Other Prevention Support: Implement strategies to prevent individuals from falling into or further into crisis.
Projects funded via the Prevention Fund:
| Member Organisation | Amount Awarded | Investment Projects |
£6,547 | We are a community hub based in Rochdale. For this reason we have had many members of the public walking in for various assistance, such as Esol, help with form filling, advice about housing, early help request, we also teach languages and therefore people request translation services, for example they will ask if we can help translate a letter from their landlord. We have also had request regards to the home office eVisa system that will be rolling out soon. We provide this service currently without funding, on a solely voluntary basis. We do believe with the help of this funding we can offer the service to many more, and open the opportunity not only to community members who walk in, but advertise the service to all. | |
£13,184 | We will use the grant to continue running our services at the community hub and add new elements to enhance our support. The project will run for six months, and the activities will include: Sustaining Current Services: Provide Holistic, Person-Centered Support: | |
£17,919 | Caritas has a significant relationship with a number of primary and secondary schools located within the Rochdale LA area. Based on discussions with headteachers/senior leaders, members of the Caritas team have co-designed a proposed project with headteachers from several of these schools with a view to address critical financial and housing needs in the community which they witness in their communities each day. We propose to deploy one of our trained Caritas social/family support workers to various schools in the borough to support vulnerable families who are experiencing poverty and disadvantage. Members of our team have professional training, detailed expertise and extensive experience in supporting households in need. This deployment will address and prevent issues such as housing insecurity created by inadequate or inaccurate household income or unsustainable expenditure by providing benefit checks and budgeting assistance. Our objective is to increase and maximise household income to prevent financial challenges reaching critical levels. | |
£9,000 | We currently deliver a deliver a multi-lingual welfare advice service based at Deeplish Community Centre (DCCA) for 2 days per week, and Spotland Community Centre (SCCA) for 1 day per week, 9am-2.30pm. The demand for this service means that there is now a two-week waiting list for an appointment and huge number of community members in need of help and assistance with multiple issue due to costs, economic and poverty issues. We want to use this funding to extend our current service by offering the following: an additional half day session on alternative weeks at DCCA and SCCA; an evening session from 5pm-8pm every week at DCCA, and two additional sessions per month at Khubsuret House, a local sheltered accommodation for older people. | |
£12,760 | We would like to extend our service offer to help local individuals/families overcome digital poverty and improve their digital confidence and skills. We aim to embed wrap-around and holistic preventative support, dovetailing with the other services we provide so that an individual can receive a range of support in one place, and that individuals in crisis, or at risk of crisis, are not further disadvantaged by having to go to multiple places for support. The holistic support includes our Community Pantry, a warm space (we are a registered warm space provider) and have a track record of assisting people living and coping with poverty/financial challenges. | |
£4,328 | We would like to do 3 hours, 2 days on weekdays from 9am-12pm. This time slot will be dedicated to help with filling forms, advice, benefits, etc. We will also have weekends open from 1pm-3pm dedicated to just families where we will provide them with a laptop to use which they can print from, free WIFI and enjoy meeting others in a warm place with refreshments included. A few of our volunteers are literacy community champions, so they will help the community members to learn how to use the laptop and teach them how to log in to websites such as home office, housing, make a bid, universal credits, search for job and many more. Also we will help to fill forms such as housing, universal credit, email schools, contact the council, job centre. | |
£6,552 | Family Central is the community connection arm of New Life Community Church in Milnrow, based on the ground floor area of the church. We offer a weekly timetable of activities aimed at strengthening families, combatting social isolation and restoring and empowering lives that were once broken. A carefully constructed schedule is designed to encourage different age groups and those in families from all backgrounds, religions, life experiences and those without families including those with mental and physical disabilities to engage maybe from crisis or initial contact and continue a holistic emotional and physical support journey with us. We foster a strong sense of welcome and belonging through social, befriending and bereavement groups. As a Rochdale Council registered Warm Space, we are open 24 hours across the week where anyone can pop in for a hot drink and snack. | |
£12,076 | We have an existing crisis offer which would be enhanced by this project through a holistic support and advice provision alongside and in addition to our existing offerings. To address the root cause of poverty: It would further support women to be independent financially through advice, support with court processes, help with employment and education to give them the tools to get themselves out of poverty. We also run men’s groups and can use this worker’s time to assist with the men as well, increasing reach. | |
Rochdale Foodbank | £10,045 | At the foodbank or pantry, a Money Mentor will engage with a client with debt problems, identify all the debts, create an income/expenditure statement and then pass all the information to the Hub, where a specialist Debt Advisor will report back in due course to the Money Mentor with specific actions to take to help the client. We pay an enrollment fee to CMA and then a fee per client (see Budget ), The advantage of this model is that our Money Mentors don’t need a lot of technical financial training, and their time is spent supporting and working with the client, who feels the benefit of personal support through their debt issues. We will employ one of the Money Mentors as our Connect Centre Coordinator, for 10 hours/week, to oversee all the activities of the Centre. |
£9,000 | Spotland Community Association (SCA) is seeking funding for the 'Spotland Welfare Advice Service' project. This project will provide FREE, bilingual (Urdu,Punjabi, Mirpuri, Arabic, Hindi, Polish and Spanish) Benefits and Welfare advice. Help will be provided to complete benefit application forms for service users who do not speak English as their first language and cannot use a computer or do not have access to a computer. This will include all statutory benefits and also advice on debt and housing issues. | |
£4,542 | Our project is inspired by the proven success of similar initiatives that have demonstrated the substantial positive impact that access to specialised advice can have on the well-being of patients and their loved ones. By partnering with Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), our aim is to provide comprehensive support to individuals with life-limiting conditions, addressing not only their medical needs but also the financial, legal, and social challenges that often accompany their diagnoses. This project will directly benefit local people by preventing crises, alleviating poverty, and reducing anxiety for patients and their families. We will integrate CAB services into our hospice care, enabling individuals to access a wide range of expert advice that goes beyond what our medical team can provide. This includes help with symptom control, guidance on benefits and financial matters, housing advice, and legal support. By embedding a CAB adviser into our multidisciplinary team (MDT), we will ensure that the service is holistic and well-integrated into the care we provide. | |
£7,865 | We will run 20 digital sessions weekly between Jan– May 25 to engage people encouraging them to be confident in exploring the digital world in innovative ways and to solve problems to meet their needs. Based in a fully fitted out IT suite our innovative learning environment will enable people to develop their digital/web/data literacy along with invaluable problem-solving and project management skills. The sessions will use phenomenon-based learning, equipping learners with practical skills for real-life situations. This approach actively involves participants in discovering knowledge and skills required to address real-world challenges. By tapping into people’s interests and passions, we will encourage a genuine enthusiasm for lifelong learning. | |
Theatre in Flow | £12,917 | Our project is an education project, that includes budgeting, confidence and digital skills. It supports adults who are new to education or who are considering a return to work after an extended break. We are currently running courses, partially funded by the WEA, across Rochdale and Heywood, at six venues – The Strand, Nye Bevan House, Champness Hall, Recovery Republic, Heywood Library and Darnhill Library. We currently have 55 learners registered. We want to increase our digital skills courses and formalise our support offer across all our locations. |