CAP Whitehaven's work supported by 2 funds 

The value of our debt-counselling work has been recognised by two grant-funding bodies in 2020. The Coalfields Regeneration Trust supports local work which is seeking to improve the lives of those residents of former coalfields areas. In April we received the news that CAP Whitehaven had been granted £10,000 to enable us to provide the award-winning service that has now been available in Copeland since 2013. This money is extremely welcome and secures the future of the centre for a further year, giving continued hope to those suffering the crushing despair of debt.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a severe effect upon CAP Whitehaven's work, which is holistic and face-to-face, and CAP headquarters have been working hard to find ways in which we can continue to carry out our debt-counselling in a socially-distanced way, something that is more difficult when many of our clients do not have access to good internet access and thus precludes their use of video-conferencing technologies like Zoom. Of course, the same restrictions on our former lives have simply compounded the problems that CAP Whitehaven's clients face, and many more people will be facing financial meltdown as the effects of this pandemic continue.

For this reason, CAP Whitehaven is hoping to employ a second part-time debt coach to work alongside Jonathan in order to be able to support more people. We put in a joint bid to Cumbria Community Foundation, together with CAP Carlisle and CAP Eden & District, all needing funding for an additional debt coach. The great news is that the CCF, together with the Cumberland Building Society's community fund have granted our three centres a total of £10,000 to be able to provide that extra capacity.

We are enormously grateful to these grant-funding bodies for the faith that they have placed in our work and we will be making effective use of every penny to help find routes out of debt for our clients and hope in a new life going forward.