News
Five Elms Primary Care Health Cafe December 2024
Herbie and Sue from BTSE (Bromley Well) attended the Five Elms Primary Care Health Cafe on December 13, 2024, at St Marks Church, Biggin Hill. They were keen to learn about the ongoing activities in Biggin Hill and the types of support that residents require. They shared information about Citizens Advice Bromley, within Bromley Well, explaining how the partnership operates and some of the services provided. They were able to offer direct information and signposting advice to attendees in a more confidential setting, as they were located in a side room. The event was lively, with over 60 people in attendance, enjoying singing and refreshments. Other partners included Clear Community Web and representatives from Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.
Crystal Palace Community Coffee Morning December 2024
Graham, Liz and Gulsah attended the Crystal Palace Community Coffee Morning on the 07.12.24 at Anerley Town Hall. Many members of the public came and we were able to speak directly to 30 residents.
The aim of the event was to bring the local community together and create a space where people could meet their MP (Liam Conlon) as well as councillors, local NHS, police and the voluntary sector including Kent Association for the blind, Community Links Bromley, and Clear Community Web. Councillors Ruth McGregor and Ryan Thomson (Crystal Palace and Anerley Ward) were present and delivered a speech to the group. We enjoyed this great opportunity for us to meet other organisations and inform them of them of the work we do, so they have a greater understanding of how we work.
Penge Recreational Church Event November 2024
Graham and Liz also attended the Penge Recreational Church on 30.11.24 and spoke with approximately 15 residents. This further demonstrates our commitment at Citizens Advice Bromley to listen to local residents challenges so we can raise this with those that want to see a passion for change as well as having the power to bring change.
Bromley Partnership Recruitment Fair October 2024
Herbie, Rizza and Sue Potter (BTSE) attended the Bromley Partnership Recruitment Fair on the 23.10.24 at the United reform Church. Over 591 members of the public came and we personally spoke to over 120 people.
Many people were interested in CA Bromley and wanted to volunteer and we were able to take people through the start of this process. We talked with people one to one and in groups as there were so many. Many people asked about Advice so we provided light signposting only explaining that we were not there to provide advice in that environment. HT was able to talk with most of the other agencies present such as the DWP, My Time Active, The Fire Service, Bromley Health Care, Community Links . South East London Mind, St Christophers, MiHomeCare and Guys and St Thomas’s.
Health and Well Being Event September 2024
Herbie and Bromley Well Colleagues Sue and Kristina, hosted stalls at the Age Concern Health and Wellbeing event on 6th September at the Walnuts shopping centre in Orpington.
The event was organised by the Saxon Day Centre with the aim of providing a chance to meet representatives from various organisations and charities to learn more about the support they offer for those with medical conditions, the socially isolated and general information on provision within Bromley. Over 12 organisations were available to talk to.
During the time we were there, Herbie and Sue spoke to over 45 members of the public and Kristina had a further 50 people, making it an excellent outreach event.
The types of queries ranged from what do we provide at Citizens Advice Bromley as well as within the wider Bromley well partnership. Specific questions were asked around consumer, parking rights, loneliness and access to mental health services to name a few. Many mentioned how they saw Debts as a thing to avoid and we were able to encourage them to seek support and not ignore the problem. We were also able to talk to professionals across the borough making it a great networking event.
One Bromley Well Being Hub Launch Event July 2024
As you will be aware, Citizens Advice Bromley has been operating a drop in on Wednesdays at the Glades since the 19th June. This is part of a wider collaboration with the aim of providing a one stop shop for health and general well being. Each week clients drop in and are seen by one of the SPA team and then where possible passed to an Advisor to be seen.
On the 19th July Herbie and Gulsah attended the official opening ceremony with the Mayor and other dignitaries. It was a great turn out as we look forward to the coming year and our presence in the glades.
London Legal Walk June 2024
On the 18th June Citizens Advice Bromley joined 1000’s of others in the London Legal Walk to raise money for free legal advice services in London and the South East. We ourselves were able to raise £2,755, which when including Gift Aid, will take us into £3000 plus pounds raised to support local people. On the team this year were Nigel, Chloe, Helen, Linda, Herbie, Margarita, Edward and Barbara, who was able to walk and help us by taking the great photos below. This year there were 5 walks to choose from when normally there are 2, so we chose one of the new walks, ‘River Walk East’. It was a lovely day passing many known and unknown landmarks as we discovered the new walk. The walk went quickly this year and we were back at Clarey Street for the finish only after a few hours. Ending our day in the ‘The Last Judgement’ Pub for a well deserved drink and refreshment.
Volunteers Celebration at June 2024
As part of our celebration of Volunteers Week, we were able to say a huge thank you to our Volunteers by having a late lunch on the 6th June at Dorothy and Marshall. The restaurant in court street is about a minute from our main office at Community House, so very convienient,As well as enjoying a three course meal we were able to give out several kindly donated prizes as well as celebrate long service awards.The photos below give one a sense of the occasion.
Cllr Jessica Arnold Visits Anerley Town Hall Outreach April 2024
Present: Graham, Louise, Parvez, Godfrey, Solomon and Sue Day and Herbie
Jessica explained that she had been part of the commissioning of Bromley well as well as a trustee of trustee of Bromley Relief in Need. Herbie gave an overview of Citizens Advice Bromley services and common trends including changes on how clients contact the service e.g email, which has increased. He discussed the increasing number of clients in negative budgets e.g. after their basic outgoings still struggling to pay for necessities.
Louise shared how demand for services had changed over years, but Housing was still an issue. She discussed private landlords and rising rents pushing people to move out as well as damp and mould and the lack of housing within Bromley for social housing clients. Furthermore, noting the rising numbers of people being placed out of borough due to a lack of affordable housing.
Graham shared the challenges of getting through to front line staff at the council on the day of an eviction; which the clients have been informed to do if they had been made homeless. It was recognised within this that council services are under high demand and genuinely do work towards supporting clients that have been made homeless. Jessica shared how they had had a good amount of success with issues passed to them.
She went on to share an innovative way for constituents to meet their councillors by leafleting specific streets ahead of time informing them when would visit their street.
At the end of the meeting Jessica offered her support for the team contacting her to escalate issue and in turn Graham expressed support for clients in the area if she needs to refer a client on. It was a positive meeting all round.
Note from Head of Advice and Projects Gulsah.
Capacity is managed on a week by week basis, hence the service is operational as a drop in, first come, first serve. Priority is determined depending on the issue or issues the client is presenting. Accessing the support from remote services has also helped managed capacity at ATH. It is always advisable to visit the Bromley well and citizens advice Bromley website for notices to check the service is closed. ATH also displays notices if closed and provides the bromley well number for clients to make contact.
Citizens Advice Bromley at Young Mums February 2024
We were really excited to be invited to speak at the Young mums morning at St Edwards Church in Mottingham on 14th Febraury 2024. Herbie was able to share how mothers can get access to support on a range of issues from Housing, Debt and Welfare Benefits as well as how they can access the Bromley Well Single Point of Access and the services the partners provide. After the main group discussion Herbie was able to speak one to one with some of the attendees and give specific information and signposting advice. Great feedback was received on the session from mums and staff. At the end we were invited to attend several other health and well being events around the borough.
One Bromley and Department for Work and Pensions recruitment event: November 2023
Rizza and Herbie attended the joint Department for Work and Pensions and One Bromley event in Orpington on the 6th November 2023. We advertised roles such as : Telephone Assessor, General Advisor, Casework Assistant and Single Point of Access and Advice service administrators. It was a really busy afternoon with loads of other partners attending enabling us to talk about the work we are doing and the issues we are seeing. When it came to the clients, we were also not sitting on our hands as there was a great turnout of people wanting to speak to us and we left with plenty of contacts to follow up on.All in all an excellent event and we will be attending more in the future.
Cost of Living Roadshows: Chislehurst Rocks August 2023
On the 19th August Citizens Advice Bromley were able to be involved in the Chislehurst Rocks event, which according to an insider, sees around 10,000 people attending. Matt, Gulsah and Herbie were on hand to talk with people about there Cost of Living Issues.
All in all it was a successful day as we were able to: give out 30 Citizens Advice Bromley bags with leaflets relating to Cost of Living plus thermometers, trolley tokens and gas keys. We also gave out free books with details of us and the wider Bromley Well inside. They even mentioned Bromley Well over the tannoy which was great and we received some volunteering interest from this. Also councillors from ‘Chislehurst Matters’ came and talked with us and the general public as well as the chair of the safeguarding board. Over all we engaged with 112 members of the public. Furthermore, this does not even count questions concerning where is the ice cream van, how do I get a ticket to the bouncy castle and my favourite ‘ I have come into a large amount of money I was thinking about doing it all down the pub!
Lastly, thanks to Sue and the BTSE team for being our go betweens, as always you are amazing!
Cost of Living Roadshows: Festival of Sport and Wellbeing July 2023
On the 25th July 2023 We were able to be involved in the large Festival of Sport and Wellbeing event in the centre of Bromley.
This was a free event is the much-anticipated sequel to Library Lates, which kicked off the BR1 Lates programme that is part of Bromley’s selection as one of the Mayor of London’s Night Time Enterprise Zones.
It was a real mixture with Crazy golf, a silent disco and karate and Gymnastics.
As Citizens Advice Bromley is a partner within the Bromley Well contract supporting health, wellbeing and independence, we believed we were a good fit. We also run the Single Point of Access for this project ,so have lots of interactions with our health partners.
However, our key message was to support clients by giving light touch advice with information and signposting on Key Cost of Living issues such as: Debt, Benefits, Energy, Housing and Crisis support such as Foodbanks and Energy vouchers. This event gave us a chance to focus on clients health in the perspective of the Cost of Living Crisis and the negative effect that this can have on clients and their families mental and physical health. For example living in conditions of damp and mould because you cannot afford to move or being unaware that you are on the wrong welfare benefit rate can have a huge effect on a clients general health.
A big Thank you to Theresa and Chloe who helped us setup. Myself (Herbie), Gulsah and Matt were joined by Linda from 4.00pm. We were really surprised by the numbers of people and it felt like being at one of our busy outreach sessions.
We had a total of 83 people come and talk to us about their issues recorded on paper and 19 recorded on our CRM system. We additionally were able to give out specific leaflets on Universal Credit Help to Claim, Prepayment meters and Housing which along with leaflets and a banner newly created by our Administrator Theresa really stood out. The event was run by the London Borough of Bromley and we were placed in a large Gazebo near them allowing us to network with others close by such as Oxleas NHS trust, My Time Active and One Bromley. We also had an excellent conversation with Keith Onslow, the Deputy Mayor of Bromley about the challenges our clients are currently facing and he echoed the fact that many residents have been talking to him too. We highted research by national CAB that many mortgage holders are now finding themselves in negative budgets due to increases in mortgage rates as some come off of fixed rate mortgages and others on tracker mortgages.
It was a great day and we are in the process of planning our next Cost of Living event which will be at Chislehurst Rocks in August 2023
Corporate Volunteer Focus : Tahlia
Tahlia has joined us at Citizens Advice Bromley on a one year coorporate volunteership. Her day job is as an HR Business Partner working for National Grid. Tahlia tells us about her experience so far in the video below.
London Legal Walk 2023
On Tuesday 13th June our team of: Edward, Dixon, Tahlia, Herbie, Barbara, Korena , Karen, Golzar and Gulsah, walked the Royal Parks circuit, so far raising £1,308 There is still time to support the work of Citizens Advice Bromley. Please click on the link below:
https://londonlegalsupporttrust.enthuse.com/pf/citizens-advice-bromley-b5cde
The London Legal Walk is the largest fundraising event in the legal calendar, bringing together over 10,000 walkers in support of frontline free legal advice services. Members of the judiciary, barristers, students, advice agencies and solicitors will walk shoulder to shoulder.With the cost of living crisis taking it’s toll on people, it’s more important than ever to support the free legal advice agencies on the frontline.
Launch of new Impact Report
We welcomed Staff and Volunteers as well as the National CEO for Citizens Advice, Claire Moriarty, to launch our Impact Report from the previous year. We started the evening with an overview of how business has been and what to expect from Terry McGregor, outgoing Chair of Trustees. He shared emotionally how much he had enjoyed his time at Citizens Advice Bromley and how proud he was of all the work that the team did to support clients in Bromley. Next Loraine Whittaker, Chief Officer Citizens Advice Bromley, launched our Impact Report and presented this with Managers Gulsah,Herbie and Fiona. After which Claire Moriarty spoke regarding national priorities and the cost of living crisis, focusing in on Pre Payment meters and the effect on clients increasing negative budgets. We then took questions which councillors asking questions including Will Connolly (Beckenham), Chris Price (Cray Valley) and Ruth McGregor (Crystal Palace). The evening finished with refreshments and light snacks.
The Glades Event 2022
On the 18th November 2022, Matt, Simone and Herbie were joined by Sue (BTSE), Nikki (Age UK) as well as Teresa from the local NHS Communications Team to promote the work of Bromley Well and what services we provide. During the day 88 people were spoken to about a range of issues. The Citizens Advice team focused on the cost of living crisis and the effects on them and their families.
London Legal Walk 2022
Here are some photos from the London Legal Walk 2022. It was an Amazing day and we exceeded our fundraising target. Thank you to all those that participated by doing the walk and all of our supporters.
Research and Campaigns Outreach: Glades 2022
As part of a Bromley Well event on the 9th June 2022 Herbie, Gulsah and the Foodbank team, led by Amanda, discussed first hand the ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ with the people of Bromley talking to over 80 people at the Glades shopping centre. People really wanted to talk about how energy costs had affected them. It appears that every strata of society has been touched in some way. This has been born out in our own findings as being one of our top areas for advice. Many had contacted their MP’s and we encouraged them to keep communication lines open. We also reminded the people of Bromley that Citizens Advice Bromley is as hear to help as it was 80 years ago and still is today. We were also joined by many of our Bromley Well colleagues including Richard (Employment and Education).
Volunteers Week 2022
It was Volunteers week starting 6th June 2022. This year we celebrated all our wonderful volunteers who we simply could not deliver the amazing service we do without them and thanked them for all their hard work. We were also able to thank them at an afternoon get together at the ‘Bull’s Head’ pub in Chislehurst. It was a great afternoon and our CEO Loraine personally thanked the volunteers as well as all the staff and volunteers eating and drinking together listening to the wonderful experiences that many have had over the years. We all raise a glass to them!
London Legal Walk 2021
Thank you to you all for your fantastic team spirit and being the first walkers ever for Citizens Advice Bromley! We had a lovely day walking through the parks of Hyde, Green and Kensington and the weather was great. On the route was saw other local Citizens Advice Centres and learned interesting facts about London. The team were: Gulsah, Herbie, Matt, Iris, Nichola, Edward, Priya, Luke, Vivien, Jane and Korena. The team were joined by Herbie’s partner Barbara for support.
They walked over 11km and together raised over £1,822!!!! Great work!