Longstanding volunteer Barbara Hobbs stepping down

It’s with sadness that we announce that longstanding volunteer Barbara Hobbs is to leave CHAC. Barbara started volunteering with us in September 2014, providing administrative support including on our reception desk greeting service users on the telephone and in person. She also did filing, photocopying and inputting lots of stats onto our database every Wednesday. Manager Paul Wilkinson said:

“It's hard to imagine a Wednesday at work without Barbara.”

CHAC staff and trustees wish Barbara all the best for the future.

If you’re interested in volunteering at CHAC, please contact the Chair on chair@chac.co.uk

New leaflets and flyers arrive!

Our new leaflets (pdf) and flyers (pdf) have arrived and we’re pretty chuffed with them!

Amy Hunting redesigned both with input from CHAC chair Nick Piska as part of her masters project at the University of Kent (as part of a team with Christina Mathiesen who focused on getting us into the modern world of social media). The final designs were then tweaked by Dave and his team at Omicron Reprographics in Canterbury.

The flyer provides information for potential clients about what we advise on and how to contact us, while the trifold leaflet gives further information on the work undertaken at CHAC, some case studies and some stats. Both can be downloaded here.

We’re very grateful to Amy and Omicron for all their hard work and time in developing these new leaflets and flyers.

If you’re an organisation in the Canterbury District that has customers, clients, or visitors who may benefit from finding out about CHAC, or who may want to volunteer with us, please email chair@chac.co.uk to request copies of the leaflets and/or flyers.

Many thanks to trustee Marta Taranda

Marta Taranda

Trustee Marta Taranda is to stand down as a trustee having moved to Edinburgh to continue her studies. Marta first joined the management committee as a student representative of Canterbury Homeless Outreach, and then joined as a full member in November 2017. Marta was an enthusiastic member of the management committee, and undertook a number of fundraisers including the KM Colour Run. Marta has said that she’d like to continue to help with the fundraising, so it’s not a final goodbye. The management committee wishes Marta all the best for the future, and we look forward to seeing her at fundraising events.

Canterbury Homeless Outreach sleep-out raises over £700

Canterbury Homeless Outreach, a student society at the University of Kent, undertook a ‘sleep-out’ to raise money for local homelessness charities, including the Canterbury Housing Advice Centre.

CHO members still smiling at the charity sleepout.

Starting at 8am on Friday 8th November, the students set up camp outside the Templeman Library where they had a stand giving information to passing students about the work of Canterbury Housing Advice Centre, Catching Lives and Porchlight.

The sleep-out ran for 24-hours, during which over 30 volunteers attended. During the day CHO put on various fundraising activities to get people involved, including a penalty shootout, balance a coin on a lemon in water and a raffle. During the night, temperatures got as low as 1 degree celsius, with the weather app saying that the "real-feel" temperate was -1 degree celsius.

The event ended 8am on Saturday. After warming up, CHO president Laura Smith said:

Our event raised over £700 and raised a lot of awareness of the conditions homeless people experience. All money raised will be divided three ways to Canterbury Housing Advice Centre, Catching Lives and Porchlight, all local charities who work go a long way in directly improving hundreds of people's lives. It made people question how hard it can be for homeless people as they walked across campus. It was an extremely eye-opening event and we hope to have more big events like this in the future.

CHAC Chair Nick Piska said:

We’re very lucky at Canterbury Housing Advice Centre to have the support of CHO; they do great work in the community themselves, and on top of that raise awareness of issues of housing and homelessness as well as much needed funds. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all involved in the sleepout, a great effort.

There’s still time to donate: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/chosleepout

Canterbury Housing Advice Centre awarded KM Charity Mark 2019

Canterbury Housing Advice Centre has been awarded the KM Charity Mark 2019!

It’s the second year running CHAC has been given the award for the work it does in the Canterbury community. Chair of CHAC, Nick Piska said:

CHAC trustees Peter Ash and Nick Piska

I’m really pleased to pick up this award on behalf of the work undertaken by the staff at Canterbury Housing Advice Centre. Our small but dedicated team of staff and volunteers work above and beyond to do their best to prevent people being evicted from their homes. Well done team!

Trustees Peter Ash and Nick Piska attended the event in Ashford on Friday 4 November to pick up the award from the KM Charity Team.

Read more about the event here: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/news/charities/charities-make-their-mark-213756/

New trustee Paul Wrynne joins CHAC management committee

Paul Wrynne

We’re pleased to announce that Paul Wrynne has joined the management committee as a trustee.

Paul brings a wealth of experience from working in the non-profit sector in Kent, including fundraising and profile-raising in both large and small organisations, so we’re pretty pleased to have in on board. Check out his profile here.

“I decided to join Canterbury Housing Advice Centre because although a lot of people might not have heard of the service they provide, the impact they have had in the Canterbury area over the years has been immense. I think its important that people living in East Kent know what Canterbury Housing Advice Centre does because it is likely someone they know has already used this vital service or may need to one day.

I have previously worked as a support worker and later moved in to fundraising for East Kent Mencap and Go Ability Trust; organisations that also work with vulnerable adults and children in East Kent. Volunteering also with Canterbury charities Catching Lives and Necessary Furniture, I have quickly realised that where these groups can slightly overlap in their mission to help the people who need it the most, the specific knowledge each team has and the unique approach to reaching their goals is what makes them vital foundations in the Kent community: Canterbury Housing Advice Centre has proven itself to be one of these fundamental groups over the years and I am excited to be part of its future development.
”

— Paul Wrynne

Funding to prevent vulnerable people becoming homeless

We’re pleased to announce that Kent Community Foundation have awarded CHAC £4,000 under its Vulnerable Adults theme. Through provision of specialist housing advice, CHAC will prevent people with mental health problems from becoming homeless and so stay well and independent through our early intervention.

This funding is essential to continuing to prevent homelessness in the Canterbury area, and particularly the large number of vulnerable people with mental health needs that CHAC assists. In 2018/2019 CHAC advised and helped a total of 2322 people (1609 of which were unique) to resolve their housing problems, preventing homelessness in 1888 cases. 34% of our clients were disabled, with 19% saying that they had long term health needs and 43% of our disabled service users saying that they had mental health problems.