youth team

A Stoke CAB team of young volunteer advisers, helping people aged between 13 and 21, won Citizens Advice National Volunteer Team of the Year Award.

The award was presented in 2004 at the National Annual Conference, and is a remarkable achievement for a team that didn’t exist two years previously.

Young people

Starting in April 2003, with funding from SRB 5 U Matter, the project gave advice and information to young people, and also trained young people as CAB advisers.

Since the team of volunteers was formed they talked to nearly 200 young people about their awareness of the CAB service and their advice needs. This consultation helped them to design a service which ran a Saturday morning Drop in session and Telephone and Outreach Advice on Wednesday evenings.

Crisis Loans

The team talked to the Department of Works & Pensions, about the difficulty young people have getting Crisis Loans, as a result Crisis Loans are now easier for young people to get.

“Young people often do not see advice services as being relevant to their needs,” said Equalities Team Manager Jude Hawes. “They face many of the same practical and legal problems that affect everyone else, such as homelessness, problems with benefit claims, problems with debt or rights at work. These problems can be made much worse if help and advice is not easily available”.

Good Advice

Project Leader Jane Hitchman added: “This project has shown that getting young people to help in designing, setting up and advising is highly successful in getting good advice to other young people.”