Advice team’s lunch honour
DEDICATED volunteers who ensure the success of Citizens’ Advice Rossendale and Hyndburn, CARH, were rewarded with celebration lunches.
In the last year, the local organisation has dealt with 3,124 clients who raised nearly 20,000 issues.
Local clients have benefitted from nearly £2million that the service has helped them to claim.
New chief executive officer Dave Oglaza said: “It is really good here and we have lots of volunteers who have come in during Covid on a limited basis to make sure we could keep providing the service.
“During the pandemic, we have had the busiest time for clients contacting the Citizens’ Advice since it was set up in the Second World War, many callers were concerned about furlough and losing their jobs.”
As part of the national
Volunteers Week, three buffets were put on at the Rossendale base at Stubbylee Hall, Bacup and at New Era in Accrington.
There are 22 volunteers within both areas and three, Linda Allen, Lesley Matthias and Ed Husband have dedicated 70 years of service between them.
Lesley, 77, said: ““I enjoy assisting a client to reach a resolution and sometimes people don’t realise what they can get and what we can do to help them.”
Leoni Barker, 23, initially started as a KickStarter then got a fixed-term contract working on the Advice Line.
She said: “I am now volunteering a couple of days a week while I apply for jobs.
“It helps me to keep my hand in and I learn something new every single day. I like helping people.”
Recruitment and training officer Lindsey Schultz trains all the volunteers and then supervisor Anne Morgan manages the Advice Line staff and volunteers.
Maddy Khan-Israeel, 23, was the youngest volunteer when she started pre-Covid while completing her foundation degree. Now volunteering one day a week at Rossendale and Hyndburn, she is the second year of her Psychology degree.
Retired senior civil servant Heather Massie has been volunteering for nearly nine years and uses her work skillset to examine complex issues and help clients contacting the Citizens’ Advice.