New benefits advice service set to launch
Callander welcomes advisers and volunteers
A new advice service is to start in Callander.
It has been set up by Callander Community Hydro Fund and Stirling District Citizens Advice Bureau Ltd.
Funded by CCHF, and called Universally Ready, it aims to assist local people through the transition to Universal Credit with one-to-one support from trained advisers and volunteers.
It will also provide advice on social security, employment, housing and a range of other subjects.
The new service will be launched at Callander Library in South Church Street at 10.30am on Wednesday when there will be refreshments and a prize draw.
People are being invited to come along and meet the CAB team and find out what they have to offer.
Craig Anderson, bureau manager and CEO of Stirling District CAB Ltd, said: “The aim is to provide wide ranging CAB advice to disadvantaged and isolated people via outreach surgeries and home visiting, thereby allowing informed, empowered and enabled decision making.
“The advice available will include help up to and including an appearance at a Social Security tribunal.
“It will also provide a home visiting advice service for those housebound by virtue of rural, economic and social isolation, helping to tackle poverty and inequality throughout Callander and its surrounding area.”
Frank Park, chairman of Callander Community Development Trust and Callander Community Hydro Fund added: “We’re delighted to be able to support the Citizens Advice Bureau to provide a Callander-based service.
“It can be very difficult for people to access support from CAB in Stirling due to transport, social or health challenges so the service will be welcomed by many in the rural area who face problems.”
Universally Ready services include the provision of a weekly generalist CAB advice service drop-in, for the community of Callander, based in the Callander library on a Wednesday morning (no appointment necessary).
It will also provide a weekly home visiting service across Callander and its surrounding area for the housebound and a local access point for Stirling CAB specialist advice services.
There will also be a weekly work club based in Callander Library to help local people find work, to help local people move closer to getting a job, to help them better understand computers to help the community be more digitally included and to reduce the number of benefit sanctions in the Callander area.