THE chair of Crosspoint, the local community support centre, says they have seen a sharp rise in people using their service in recent years as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
Crosspoint provides a range of services such as carrying out checks to see if people are receiving all the benefits they are entitled to; providing information requested by government agencies and following up with any claims/mandatory reconsiderations; offering guidance on the formal options available to people in financial debt; and they offer support with CV writing, housing association and/or landlord correspondence and scanning/photocopying formal documents.
Chair, Kevin Fairman, says that volunteers at the charity have seen the number of people from the local community coming into the welcome centre in the Market Place for help and support increase by more than 50% in 2023, compared with 2022.
“During 2023, we therefore opened for another half-day each week, making four in total now to keep up with the need,” he explained. “We are now open on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1.30pm to 4pm and on Fridays and Saturdays from 10am to 12.30pm.
“We are certainly seeing people having to deal with a wider range of more complex issues than a few years ago. There seems to be a higher number of instances where people’s applications for personal independence payments, attendance allowance etc. are being turned down on first submission by the Department of Work and Pensions.
“Following a grant award via the Wiltshire Energy Food and Community Support Fund, in the last two months, we have also been able to provide direct financial assistance to 30+ people in the Westbury area.”
Counselling
Kevin Fairman says that Crosspoint has increased the size of the counselling team to deal with the increase in requests.
He explained, “We are very proud of the excellent service that our professional counsellors provide to people on a free-to-use basis and regularly get positive feedback about the difference this has made to people’s lives.
“But, due to the very high demand for the service, the waiting list for people to be seen is longer than we would like and the time each person must wait before being seen by a counsellor is too long.
“We have therefore recently increased the size of the counselling team and hope to be able to respond faster to this local need through this excellent service.
Trustees and volunteers
“These factors have led us to decide to increase the number of trustees from the current number of four, to six during 2024.
“If you would like more information about the possibility of becoming a volunteer or trustee with this growing charity in the Westbury area, then we would be delighted to hear from you. Please email info@crosspoint-westbury.co.uk for an application form.
“The number of sessions that Crosspoint volunteers do each month is completely up to them, but all trustees also volunteer at least once per month at the Welcome Centre. This is to keep us close to the issues being faced by people in the local community.”
For more information about Crosspoint, visit www.crosspoint-westbury.co.uk
