We would like to wish all our followers festive greetings for the season and wish you a wonderful and successful 2020.
We would also like to take this opportunity to tell you more about the work our charity, Connecting Communities in Berkshire (CCB), will be delivering this winter across our wonderful county.
As you are aware CCB is a community development charity and unusual in the fact that we support communities from across the whole county of Berkshire, with a particular focus on reaching those people in rural areas. We have been operating as a county-wide charity for over 45 years and we are proud of the diverse range of projects we have been able to deliver to a wide variety of beneficiaries over this time.
Over Christmas and into 2020 our focus continues to be on providing low income families at risk of, or in, fuel poverty advice and support through our Family Home Energy Education & Advice Project. Through this project in 2018-19 we were able to help 1158 vulnerable households from across the county, levering in an estimated £25,760 of additional income to these families by claiming the Warm Home Discount.
Over the festive period communities, particularly those in rural areas in Berkshire, will look to gather in their local village hall or community building to enjoy social gatherings, Christmas fairs, pantos, cake sales and much more. It fills us with joy to know that CCB, through our Community Buildings Advice Service, has supported these community hubs by providing advice, support, training and a wealth of information to volunteer trustees that help keep these buildings open, vibrant and ensure they remain an asset to their community.
As well as being a happy time to spend with family and friends, Christmas can also be an incredibly lonely and isolating period for some in our community. As a result of grant funding from Wokingham United Charities, the National Lottery Awards for All programme and the Pargiter Trust via the Berkshire Community Foundation, we are now working with a number of communities in Berkshire to increase the range of opportunities for social contact in rural Berkshire. The CCB Rural Loneliness & Isolation Project provides an opportunity for communities to review what takes place and how activities are publicised. Our aim is to increase the awareness of what already takes place locally, as well as to identify gaps in provision and encourage the creation of new activities to address the needs of under-represented groups. If you think this support could benefit your community, please contact Tim Parry at tim.parry@ccberks.org.uk.
In addition to the above we continue to deliver a plethora of training subjects to adults which look to help strengthen and improve our communities, we are currently funded to deliver these in Wokingham Borough and West Berkshire. Since the start of the academic year (Sept 2019) we have already delivered training on Community Led Housing, An Environmental Impact Conference for Community buildings and a Community Organising workshop focused on Listening Skills. We kick off 2020 delivering important Essential Life Saving Skills (with partners Heartstart Thatcham) to two rural communities (Hermitage & Brimpton) and have plans to deliver interesting and new training on topics such as Tacking Rural Crime and Trustee Training for Village Hall volunteers. To find out more about these as they develop please sign-up to receive our monthly e-bulletin Action for All or follow us on our social media accounts (links below).
If there is any subject you would like to hear more about please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at admin@ccberks.org.uk or call 0118 9612000. We close the office on Christmas Eve but will be back, raring to go, on the 2nd January. In the meantime we hope you have a very Happy Christmas and get out and about over the festive period enjoying all our beautiful county has to offer!
This training is FREE to attend and provided by Heartstart Thatcham but places are limited and must be BOOKED. This training is supported by West Berkshire Council Adult Community Learning team & Gerald Palmer Eling Trust.
The Emergency Life training will cover:
Essential lifesaving skills that you can use in an emergency situation to save and prolong lives in your community
Our Energy Advisor & Project Co-ordinator Helen has been out and about in West Berkshire and Slough this month, running information and advice sessions with groups supporting families. At Compton, Helen met a parent she had advised previously. That parent was pleased to inform Helen that she was now using her economy seven heating properly, had claimed the Warm Home Discount, and had saved £60 per month on her gas and electricity costs, a total of (£860 saving a year!!). Most importantly though this has resulted in her family being warm at home and no longer having to use extra clothing and blankets to avoid the cold.
Helen has also run a training session for social workers on
how they can support and advise the vulnerable families they support, to reduce
their home energy costs and claim any additional income they are entitled to.
Helen’s top-tip,
if you work with low-income families, or those on a low-income with long term
health conditions, tell them to claimThe Warm Home Discount now! In
previous years the big suppliers have closed for new applications in December.
Barclays has reversed its decision to prevent customers withdrawing cash at post offices reports the Citizens Advice. Barclays’ announcement that from January, its debit card holder would no longer be able to withdraw cash from a post office counter prompted fury from MPs and consumer groups.
Cancelling the plan, Barclays said it had been persuaded to rethink its proposals by the argument that offering the service is “crucial at this point to the viability of the post office network.”
Barclays had been the only one of 28 banks not to fully sign up to a new Banking Framework agreement which ensures consumers can continue to access everyday banking services at post offices. The new agreement also sees an increase in payments for postmasters providing these services. The government consistently cites Post Office banking services as a key part of the solution to bank branch closures.
Barclays closed around 500 branches since 2015, and an estimated 15 million cash withdrawals were made by Barclays customers at post offices last year. Citizens Advice is currently undertaking research into Post Office banking. For further details see their blog or contact annabel.barnett@citizensadvice.org.uk.
Connecting Communities in Berkshire 