About us
Photo: Julia M Cameron / PexelsAbout usStarted because somebody needed it
Groups like this usually begin the same way: a problem nobody was dealing with, and a few people who decided to deal with it. Everything since has been built on what people actually asked for rather than what looked good in a plan.
We are small enough that you will speak to a person who knows your situation, and we would rather tell you honestly what we cannot do than take on more than we can hold.
Getting help
What happens when you contact us.
- Step 1
Get in touch
Call, write or come in. You do not need a referral and you do not have to explain everything first.
- Step 2
We listen
In private, at your pace, and without a form to fill in before anybody talks to you.
- Step 3
We work out what helps
Our own support, or somebody better placed — and we will make the introduction rather than hand you a number.
- Step 4
We stay in touch
Until things are settled, or for as long as you want us to.
What we are
Open to anyone
If you are not sure whether we are the right people, ask. We will point you somewhere if we are not.
Run by people here
Local, with a committee that meets and members who can vote it out.
Where money goes
Accounts and a yearly report, published rather than summarised, and a plain answer about what a donation pays for.
Confidential
What you tell us stays with us, and we will say clearly if that ever cannot hold.
How to help
Three things keep a group like this running, and money is only one of them. Time is the scarcest: a few hours a month, regularly, is worth more than a large gift once.
Skills come next — somebody who can do accounts, fix a website, drive a van or sit with a person who is frightened. And telling people we exist matters more than it sounds: most of the people we help were told about us by somebody else.