InspirAlba - Household Resilience
Argyll and Bute Council · 31 January 2024
Back to Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Area Community Planning Group — 31 January 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Household Resilience – InspirAlba What is Household Resilience? - Household resilience is a project in which we work directly with 10 locally based organisations; these organisations support us to deliver support on fuel poverty, climate action, child and family poverty and food poverty. - As a team, we undertake outreaching, signposting and supporting householders, providing a link between vulnerable households and support organisations to reduce poverty and improving wellbeing. Our Partner Organisations ALIenergy – is an organisation who provide advice and support for warmer, drier homes. There is also something called Affordable Warmth Team, this helps people combat fuel poverty. It provides advice, support and mentoring to people living in Argyll and Bute, Lochaber and Highlands experiencing fuel poverty. Some financial help that could be available to clients is the Flexible Food Fund and the white goods grant. Bute Advice – is an organisation who can also provide help with the flexible food fund and check whether you are eligible for it. They can also help with benefits, money and energy advice. They aim to provide impartial, confidential advice and assistance with regards to: • Housing advice • Homelessness, eviction, housing grants, arrears and tenancy issues. • Welfare Benefits Advice • Benefits checks, form filling and representation at Tribuna Appeals. • Utilities Advice • Debt Management, liaising with utility providers, changing suppliers, accessing grants and alleviation of fuel poverty advice. • Debt Management Provision (advice regarding voluntary payment arrangements, protected trust deeds, bankruptcy, DAS and court representation. Other partner organisations: - Foodbank, Home Energy Scotland, Kintyre Recycling What we do - We refer clients onto our partner organisations, which can help them in their situation. - We also assist clients for applications or forms of they are not able, sometimes on the phone, in the InspirAlba office or a home visit. This can include applications for grants like the Scottish Welfare Fund, or an application for a Blue Badge or even some help with a form if needed. - We also deliver food parcels from the food bank if the client does not have a car and lives far away from the food bank; we are able to do this every two weeks if needed. - We had a young client who had just moved into a flat, we had referred them onto ALIenergy, because they needed help regarding their energy. After ALIenergy got in touch with the client, they had gave him a White Goods application form. The client had expressed to us they needed help with the form. Fortunately, he was eligible for the grant and received £330 for a cooker or washing machine.
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- Many clients who are struggling to buy food receive a food parcel delivered to their door every two weeks if they need it. Project Coordinator Contact Details: Leah.mcguigan@inspiralba.org.uk 07359139902