This campaign has now closed
Training telephone advisers to help Lincolnshire people with their problems via a single county-wide telephone number.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
Citizens Advice Bureaux throughout the UK are often the very first port of call for people in crisis. About half of CAB’s emergency advice relates to money, in particular debt. At a time of rapidly increasing personal levels of debt in the UK and worries about rising mortgage payments, our high quality and experienced advice service is vital in trying to address problems with potentially devastating implications before they become insoluble. The Lincolnshire Telephone Advice Service was set up to benefit all sections of the public, yet we know that many of the most vulnerable in society do not use the current face-to-face service. Just some of these include: The elderly who can find it difficult to travel to a face-to-face meeting Rural dwellers and travellers who can find it difficult to access a physical bureau Young people, especially those without jobs and not in education and training Prisoners and young offenders People with minor mental health problems who can need regular support which can be difficult on a face-to-face basis. We work with all the other Lincolnshire bureaux to provide the Lincolnshire Telephone Advice Line. It is continuously staffed from 10-4 each weekday, with a 24 hour automated information line outside these hours or when all advisers are busy. Last year, we helped 8348 people. We are, however, a victim of our own success as 21802 people actually tried to get through to us. We must train new dedicated telephone advisers to cope with the ever-increasing demand. Help ! I Need Somebody is a five year project to train ten new volunteer telephone advisers every year to work in Lincoln bureau on the County Telephone service. We need £100,000.