Help Hub supports people to move forward with their lives

A unique partnership set up to support people during the Coronavirus crisis will continue to operate as lockdown restrictions ease.

The BwD Help Hub was set up three months ago to help people in isolation to access food and essential supplies – as well as providing other support services.

As the immediate need for access to food subsides, the Council’s Help Hub will continue to support local residents to move forward with their lives in other ways.

The local partnerships set up to support people during the Coronavirus crisis can continue to help people with:

• finance, benefits and debt management
• mental health support
• wellbeing and loneliness
• learning, training and employment
• getting online and using technology
• access to food and essentials.

Councillor Mustafa Desai, Executive Member for Adult Services, said:

Over the last three months, over 3,400 people have contacted the BwD Help Hub, and not all of them have needed support getting food and drink.

People have asked for help with a variety of things, from making sure they can afford to pay for utilities while they aren’t working, to having someone to chat to regularly to support their mental wellbeing. Working with local partners, such as Age UK and Care Network, we’ve done our best to support people through a very difficult time.

Now that these networks are in place, we want to continue working together to give bespoke support to people who need it. The impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown on our local communities is going to be felt for months to come, and the BwD Help Hub is here to support people to move their lives forward as things gradually get back to normal.

We want to ensure local people get the right support at the right time to have the best possible lives they can.

Working with the Council as part of the BwD Help Hub are local organisations from the voluntary, community and faith sector, including Age UK, Care Network, BwD Carers and Blackburn Youth Zone.

The DWP will also join the local partnership to offer people advice on benefits and finding work, and to support employers too.

Lisa Howarth, Integrated Communities Partnership Manager at Job Centre Plus, said:

Jobcentre staff have done a fantastic job of processing record numbers of Universal Credit claims and getting support to people who need it quickly. This task would not have been possible without the close working relationships we have with our partner organisations and the local authority.

We are excited to continue this momentum by joining the BwD Help Hub partnership as lockdown eases and the economy starts to bounce back.

There is a range of support and advice we can offer to help jobseekers find work, and employers get the people they need. Along with the support of all the other fantastic organisations involved, we are confident that we can work together to provide the best possible help for the residents of Blackburn with Darwen.

To contact the BwD Help Hub to ask for support:

• Call 01254 588111 – lines are open 9am-5pm Monday to Friday
• Fill in the online Help Hub form