We are building on our partnership with Your Own Place by offering money advice in the community.
The local social enterprise will be based in foodbanks in Diss and Harleston twice a month developing relationships with tenants and residents. They will be able to have a chat with the Your Own Place team to find out what support can be offered including workshops, one to ones and shorter 'financial conversations' to help tenants build on their financial skills.
The main topics of the workshops are:
- Budgeting and saving
- Managing and understanding debt
- Benefits and cost of living support
- Understanding and saving on bills
Tenants can also get support with short online forms, applying for travel passes, signposting to local organisations or addressing any money-related concerns or questions.
We have previously worked in partnership with Your Own Place as part of Independent East. The new drop-in sessions are as a result of tenant feedback as we aim to make accessing financial support and advice easier.
Our Community Foundation has part funded the project and members of the Customer Engagement Team will attend some of sessions to gauge the impact they have on tenants. The sessions will be held on the following dates at the following venues:
Hope Church, Diss:
- Friday 2nd June 10.45am – 12pm
- Monday 19th June 10am – 11.30am
- Friday 30th June 10.45am - 12pm
- Friday 7th July 10.45am – 12pm
- Monday 17th July 10am – 11.30am
- Friday 28th July 10.45am – 12pm
St John’s Church, Harleston - all sessions will run from 1.30pm – 3pm:
- Tuesday 30th May
- Tuesday 13th June
- Tuesday 27th June
- Tuesday 4th July
- Tuesday 25th July
Our Community Foundation Manager, Emilie Hildreth said: “ We are delighted to be partnering with Your Own Place for a third year as we both strive to support our tenants and communities. We want these drop-in sessions to be easy to access points at the heart of our communities of Diss and Harleston, where we and Your Own Place can offer residents vital finical advice and support, in a friendly and easy to access way.”
Your Own Place CEO, Rebecca White said: “Your Own Place, thanks to a third year of partnership with Saffron Housing Trust, is pleased to be able to provide support and workshops and help their tenants and communities through the ongoing Cost of Living crisis. With a presence in Diss and Harleston foodbanks, by building relationships and trust we will support people with their money concerns through ad hoc 1-2-1 and group workshops to get the money help they need.”
You can read more about Your Own Place's work on their website by clicking here.