Islington People’s Rights (IPR) has a new financial education programme, targeted at the most vulnerable individuals and groups in our community. The Financial Skills for Life programme helps individuals to increase their long-term money-management skills and financial awareness, and links to the debt advice work delivered by IPR. This programme benefits those at risk of becoming financially excluded due to poverty, mental illness, homelessness and other factors. Financial Skills for Life is funded by the Natwest Skills and Opportunities Fund.

We provide one-to-one support sessions that focus on debt awareness, budgeting and planning ahead financially, at our offices at The Manor Gardens Centre in Holloway, with one our experienced specialist caseworkers. Clients can book an appointment or contact us for financial capability support, or debt advice, by ringing the IPR Advice Line on 020 7561 3685 on Monday, Tuesday or Friday between 2 and 4pm.

Our Access+ project works with Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee (BAMER) organisations based in Islington.

IPR already has excellent links with BAMER organisations and we are now building on those links by offering BAMER community members specialist advice directly to them.

We are one of the few organisations to deliver specialist advice sessions at BAMER venues.

The organisations we currently work with are:

• Islington Somali Community
• Eritrean Community in the UK
• Latin American Women’s Rights Service
• Islington Chinese Association
• The Arab Advice Bureau.

Since November 2014, we have been providing debt and welfare benefits advice and representation to members of these communities through outreach sessions at their  organisations.

Access+ also involves us training staff at the BAMER organisations to enable them to deal with benefits and debt issues better themselves in the first instance and to be able to signpost accurately.

Thanks to this project, clients can see us in a venue they already know, with people around who they trust and who they can communicate with in their native language.

Access + has enabled IPR to give specialist advice to Islington residents who may not otherwise have accessed our service due to language or cultural barriers.

If you are a member of one of the community groups listed, you can make an appointment to see us at the venue you visit.

This project is funded by a two year grant from Trust for London.

The IPR Advance project ran from October 2013 to September 2016, thanks to a three-year grant from City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charity.

Advance focused on helping ex-offenders, particularly those affected by drug and alcohol issues, with their welfare benefits and debt problems. The sessions formed part of a package of support for the client that improves their resettlement and helps to reduce re-offending rates. Income maximisation is key to this client group, who often find themselves struggling to get their lives back together following release from custody. The project complemented the activities of specialist drugs and alcohol agencies and the Probation Service in Islington by ensuring that their clients had access to specialist advice. Working with these agencies, IPR helped break the cycle of offending and re-offending and put in place the building blocks for more stable lives in the community.

Sessions took place at: Cranstoun Drug Services in N1, Islington Drug and Alcohol Specialist Services (IDASS) in N7, and Probation Servicesin EC1.

Further funding is sought to continue delivering this important work supporting ex-offenders, particularly those affected by drug and alcohol issues.