Do you need advice on how to deal with debt problems? On which benefits to claim? On problems with your housing or employment?

Well, in Central Bedfordshire there are a wide range of
independent agencies that can help you with these problems and with various other social welfare legal issues.

In the local area we have well established Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) with offices in Ampthill, Biggleswade, Dunstable
and Leighton Linslade.  Last year these bureaux dealt with almost 10,000 enquiries; with debt and benefits being by far the biggest enquiry area.

Each CAB is open to everybody and you can contact them in a variety of ways: through a drop-in advice session; on the telephone; and even by email.  You can also get basic information on a range of issues direct from the CAB website.

A number of other agencies also give information, advice and support to different groups of people in Central Bedfordshire.

These include:

• Age Concern Bedfordshire – information, advice and support for people aged 50+
• Aragon Housing Association (Money Advice Team) – advice for Aragon HA tenants with debt or benefit problems
• Bedfordshire Race and Equalities Council – advice for people from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, and for people with employment discrimination and equalities enquiries
• Bedfordshire Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support – advice and support for refugees and asylum seekers living in the area
• Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association (Money Advice Team) – advice for BPHA tenants with debt or benefit problems
• Disability Resource Centre – information and support for people with disabilities
• Polish-British Integration Centre – advice for people from the Polish community
• Sight Concern Bedfordshire – information, advice and support for people with sight problems and their carers
• Voices for All (Advocacy Alliance) – information and support for vulnerable people who need an advocate

Advice Directory

Further details on all the above advice agencies, including contact details and opening times, are available here.

Advice Forum

All the above agencies are members of Bedfordshire Advice Forum (BAF) which acts as a network for local advice providers.  You can find further details about BAF on their website.

Advice Strategy

To help plan future advice services in Central Bedfordshire, BAF has been helping to develop an Advice Strategy for the area.  This Strategy will be trying to ensure that effective, easily accessible, well-publicised and high quality social welfare advice and advocacy services are provided in Central Bedfordshire.  For further information on the Strategy, please contact Lem Simkins.

Out and about on a Friday or Saturday night in Dunstable or Houghton Regis?

If this is you, chances are you’ve come across the Street Pastors. Started in 2009, Street Pastors walk the Dunstable streets every Saturday night between 10pm-4am, and on some Friday nights in Houghton Regis.

What is a Street Pastor?

A Street Pastor is a member of a church community with a concern for society – in particular young people who feel excluded or marginalised. By getting to know people on the streets, in the pubs and clubs or at parties, the Street Pastors gain an understanding of both personal and community needs.

The Street Pastors want people to know that the Church is there for them in a practical way. They want people to know that their role is not one of preaching religious views, but one of listening, caring and helping or working in an unconditional way.

The Dunstable and Houghton Regis Street Pastors have had a warm reception from the community, particularly those enjoying the night life of our towns. They find it a privilege to be able to spend time chatting with people of all ages who want to engage or just pass the time of ‘night’ with them.

So what’s a typical night like…?

Street Pastors start the evening at about 10pm. They record some basic data about every person they come into contact with – for example their age and gender. Any incidents are recorded as are any items recovered e.g. drugs, glass bottles etc, and passed on to the Police. All of this information helps to build up a really useful picture of the night time economy.

A recent Friday night in Leighton Linslade saw over 140 people make contact with the team, which is typical of a normal night. One Street Pastor said: ‘We came across a very drunk young lady at the taxi rank; she had a good friend with her but due to the severity of her drunkenness the taxis were refusing to take her home. We spent some time with her getting her to sip some water and helped sober her up.’

Street Pastors and the Community Safety Partnership

Street Pastors are supported by the Community Safety Partnership, although they operate completely independently. They are a great initiative and the team is really looking forward to the first evaluation of the service with a view to seeing if it could be replicated in other areas.

Like to get involved? We’d love to meet you!

To be a member of the Dunstable and Houghton Regis Street Pastors, you need to:

• be over 18 (no upper age limit),
• be linked to church group and
• be able to commit to a 50 hour training programme

The Street Pastor team consists of at least three or four people on duty at any one time, so you would never be by yourself and the existing team would love to meet any one interested in joining them.

If you’d like to find out more, please email the team co-ordinator Becky Atkins for more information. The Street Pastors postal address is: 80a Houghton Road, Dunstable. LU5 5AD

Youth charity, The Prince’s Trust, is appealing for school leavers to take part in a new course to be run this summer.

National Citizen Service (NCS) is a new, free scheme for year 11 school leavers to learn new skills, challenge themselves and make
a positive impact in their community during the summer holidays.

Young people will design a project to benefit their local area as well as going on a five-day team-building trip, taking part in activities such as kayaking and rock-climbing.

‘Positive impact…’

Graham Ball, Prince’s Trust regional director for the East of England, said: “All too often young people are viewed negatively by society, as “no-hopers” or “layabouts”. National Citizen Service will give Central Bedfordshire’s young people the chance to prove that they can and do make a positive impact in their community.”

“NCS will also give young people the chance to make new friends, build their confidence and gain new skills for future employment or further education.”

The Prince’s Trust is also appealing for volunteers to help run the scheme in Central Bedfordshire. Volunteers will help the young people to achieve success, giving them support and encouragement during the course.

Graham adds: “The Prince’s Trust could not achieve the results it does without the support of our volunteers. The Trust’s 5,000 volunteers play a pivotal role in helping young people move forward with their lives.”

‘Changing young lives…’

Youth charity The Prince’s Trust helps change young lives. It runs a range of courses, giving disadvantaged young people practical and financial support and helping them develop key workplace skills such as confidence and motivation. More than three in four young people on Prince’s Trust schemes move into work, education and training.

NCS is a coalition government scheme to be piloted across the UK this summer. Twelve pilot projects will run across England in summer 2011 giving 11,000 young people the chance to take part.

Want to find out more…?

For further information about volunteering or to find out more about National Citizen Service in your area, visit The Prince’s Trust website or call freephone 0800 842 842.

The Bedfordshire & Luton Local Resilience Forum (BLLRF) is setting out new plans to make sure our business and voluntary sector colleagues are prepared if disaster strikes, and that help is at hand.

Every year 1 in 5 businesses face a major disruption to their services, and 1 in 10 of these will cease trading as a result.  Experience shows that businesses are far more likely to survive a disaster if they have planned for it.

What is Business Continuity?

Business Continuity in its simplest form means that if you are faced with any form of disruption you understand how you will be kept informed and how you will get back to business.

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) identifies all the requirements essential to keeping the business running in the event of a crisis.  By law, local authorities have to provide advice and guidance to businesses and voluntary organisations on BCP.

In 2010, a survey was carried out with businesses across the sub-region.  Within Bedfordshire & Luton, 36% of businesses have a BCP. However, the survey also showed that as businesses go through the 24-49 employees band they are most likely to develop a BCP (87%), but then worryingly when businesses reach above 50 employees the number of businesses with a BCP declines (78%).

Businesses most likely to have a BCP are:

• In the finance, property and business services or agriculture and production sectors (45% and 36% respectively);
• Be situated over more than one site (53% compared to 32% of those on single sites);
• Are Private Limited (51%);
• Have a formal business plan (56% compared to 39% that do not); and
• Have a turnover in excess of £2million (82%)

Bedford Borough Council, Central Bedfordshire Council & Luton Borough Council Economic Development Teams, along with Emergency Planning colleagues and experts from the private sector are developing plans to address the above issues.

They are also joining forces with colleagues such as Business Link, Bedfordshire & Luton Chamber and the Federation of Small Businesses to look at how businesses can be supported following a disaster

There is a large amount of advice about developing a BCP available on the BLLRF website.  If you are interested in becoming part of these groups or have any thoughts and suggestions for the team, please contact Caron Kendall, Business Growth Officer, Central Bedfordshire Council on 0300 300 6984.

Community gardening club ‘Growing Downside’ has secured a £5,815 donation from the Santander Foundation to enable it to continue operating throughout this year’s growing season.

The donation will help to fund Groundwork’s staff time, provide training and buy learning resources and materials to ensure green-fingered residents have all they need to continue the growing club into the future.

During 2011, local residents will take a much more hands on role in terms of planning the garden, preparing the site, choosing and caring for the plants and harvesting and enjoying the produce.  

‘Grab a watering can…!’

Lorna Hunt, Senior Governance Manager at Santander, recently visited Growing Downside and met with the volunteers and Groundwork staff.  Lorna said: “The enthusiasm of the volunteers and Groundwork was fantastic to see and was really infectious.  I’m a non-gardener, but even I felt inspired to grab a watering can!”

Vicky Duxbury, Environmental Education Officer at Groundwork said: “We are extremely grateful to the Santander Foundation for their support which will enable us to continuing offering our services to local people throughout 2011.”  

Like to get involved?

The Growing Downside gardeners meet every Tuesday afternoon at Downside Neighbourhood Centre from  2.15pm — 4.30pm. The gardeners do meet at other times if you can’t make Tuesdays, please contact Vicky Duxbury at Groundwork on 01582 720147 to find out when the group is meeting.  

Groundwork also offer free ‘Grow Your Own Sessions’ where you can learn how to grow your own fruit and vegetables.  These sessions are every other Tuesday 2.15pm—4.15pm.

Forthcoming dates are 2, 16 and 30 August 2011.

Autumn dates will be publicised later this year.

Downside Neighbourhood Centre is located next to Downside Lower School on Oakwood Avenue, Dunstable.

Please contact Vicky Duxbury for further information on 01582 720147 or visit Groundwork’s website.