Debt Centre Update – December 2019

Debt centre

The Wharfedale & Aireborough debt centre – a partnership between the Methodist Circuit and Christians Against Poverty – has been up and running for 9 months. Here's an update on progress and details of how you can get involved.

Building the Team - Samantha Price started as our debt centre manager in March and has completed her training for the role.

She can be contacted at samanthaprice@capuk.org or 07935 223663. Sam's normal working hours are Tuesdays & Wednesdays 9.30am – 5.30pm. Sam is building a team of volunteers to accompany her on home visits and support the work in other ways. Please get in touch to find out more about joining the team

First Client To Go Debt Free! By the New Year we hope to see our first client go debt free which really is something to celebrate. When I first met with her in April, she was finding each day a struggle. She had been though several horrific events in her life and found it very difficult to trust anyone.

Despite these difficulties we managed to work together to help her gather up her paperwork to send off to head office for them to put together a budget.

At times she was suspicious and sometimes she got upset, even annoyed during the visits but we supported her, remaining calm throughout. Building up a good relationship makes it easier for clients to work with us and having this face to face contact in a client's home is how we differ from other organisations.

Once our visits are completed, head office keep us informed about how the client is moving along their journey to becoming debt free and we maintain contact with them if they need anything or we invite them to church.

How amazing it is to help people get out of debt and to show them that we love them because God loves them.

Sam.

Fundraising - We've made a fantastic start in raising the debt centre's annual running costs of £20,000 with national Methodist Church funding and generous support from churches around the Circuit. Individual donations are also welcome.

To make a contribution, please contact the Circuit finance officer, Carol Tooke, at catooke@hotmail.co.uk or 0113 267 3995. (Note that this financial support is separate from direct giving to Christians Against Poverty as a charity.)