Love Your Neighbour
#LoveYourNeighbour loves working collaboratively and is passionate about unity across town, city and nation.
Love Your Neighbour has grown in a few months from the start of the pandemic to become a nation-wide alliance of thousands of churches of all denominations, and other local organisations supplying emergency food and supplies to people in crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic together with other crucial personal support such as debt advice and employment training.
Since September 2020 you have incredibly raised £105,000!! which has been generously match funded by a Government grant from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. See how we’re spending your money below…
We have three Key Love Your Neighbour projects:
Employment Coaching - Spear and Re-Work
The number of people being made redundant in the UK has risen at the fastest rate since records began as the shock of the economic fallout from Covid-19 has rippled through the job market. As a result, nearly 4.5% of people over 16 are now unemployed in the UK- for men it’s almost 1 in 20 (Office For National Statistics, 2020).
Spear
The Spear Programme helps young people aged 16-24 facing disadvantage into work or education. It equips confidence, motivation and the vital skills they need to succeed in long-term employment. Spear has a proven track record with a very high success rate at employment.
Re-Work
Re-work is a free online programme for adults out of work. Available to anyone in the UK, over the age of 18. New programme details here.
Debt Advice - CAP and CAP Life Skills
6 million people in the UK, - (almost 1 in 9), have fallen behind on their household bills because of coronavirus, with carers, shielders and key-workers hardest hit; 1 in 5 key workers have been affected (Citizens Advice, 2020).
CAP offers award-wining debt counselling and community groups, We are a CAP center and have recently expanded this provision. We also hope to start CAP Life Skills very soon, which develops confidence in decision making.
Food provision for Food insecurity
So many households are now struggling to pay the bills, and put food on the table, one in 4 adults in the UK have experienced food insecurity during Covid (Northumbria University Newcastle, 2020). Bills and rent are fixed, so it’s always food provision that shrinks when times are hard. Baroness Boycott said that the social and economic consequences of coronavirus are exposing millions of people in our country to hunger and malnutrition (Northumbria University, 2020).
In partnership with many volunteers, Coastline Vineyard, local schools and local charities, and churches of many denominations, the Love Your Neighbour Scheme in Bournemouth, using St Clements Church as the base, in its first year has delivered weekly food parcels equal to 140,000 meals, to people who fall through the gaps of existing provision. With match funding we hope to continue this vital work into the Autumn as the financial situation improves with lockdown easing.