CURRENT SERVICES AT BUCFP – UPDATE NOVEMBER 2020

FOOD

Although we are still not open to the public we are still preparing cooked meals for collection twice per week on a Wednesday and a Friday 12:30-13:30 for £1.00 per meal with free surplus fruit, veg and bread also available for collection.

We are considering what support we can offer over the colder months; such as winter hampers, to include, treats, toys/activity packs (for children) hot water bottle, blankets, hats, gloves, scarves, toiletries and other goodies. To register for interest for individuals or families in need call 01273 601 211 or email Joy - education@bucfp.org.

We are also able to help you access regular support for food by referring to local food banks, we are able to provide one off emergency food parcels for people in crisis (collection only). Call 01273 601 211 prior to arrange or email food.project@bucfp.org for more info.

ALLOTMENT

The allotment remains available for booked sessions for adults and accompanied children on Mondays. Please email food.project@bucfp.org for more info or call 01273 601 211.

DONATED ITEMS

We have a store of new and second hand (clean) bedding, sleeping bags, towels, clothes, small household items, toys, parenting items etc. (collection only)

We are not currently taking donations of non-food items; however, we can advise on other organisations who are.

Please call to enquire 01273 601 211 or email info@bucfp.org for more info.

AFFORDABLE LAUNDRY

We are offering booked appointments to use our washing machines & tumble dryer £2.50 per wash (laundry tablet included). Call 01273 601 211 to book or email info@bucfp.org for more info.

WELFARE & BENEFITS ADVICE

We are still providing benefits advice online and by phone. To access this service please call the direct welfare rights line on 01273 676 171 or email welfarerights@bucfp.org for more info.

DIGITAL SUPPORT

We have a computer room here at the centre with a printer and internet access. We are offering booked, one to one (socially distanced) digital support appointments in our computer room with our experienced volunteers.

Can assist you with job searching, applications, CVs, emails, social media, paying bills online and much more. Call 01273 601 211 to book or email info@bucfp.org

CHILDCARE & PARENT SUPPORT

We have a free Ofsted registered early years setting called ‘The Playroom’ that has a focus on outside play and learning. This is for children 1 years old - up to the age of 8 years old.

This is open for booked sessions, children & parents need to be registered in advance for this service and there are certain requirement criteria. Please contact playroom@bucfp.org for more information.

VOLUNTEERING

Due to social distancing restrictions our volunteering capacity is currently reduced. Therefore, we have limited volunteering places available. Please email volunteercoordinator@bucfp.org for information on current opportunities.

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For more information and regular updates about what services we offer please see our website, Facebook or Instagram.

Our office hours are Tues-Friday 10am-4pm.

www.bucfp.org

https://www.facebook.com/bucfp1/

https://www.instagram.com/bucfp/

June 26th 2020 – latest update for our charity and community centre

Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project

The centre will remain closed to users for July and August while we work with our team of volunteers continuing to provide packages of support and food to local families and individuals in need. We will also continue to run our information and advice services remotely by phone and email 4 days per week. The allotment remains available for booked sessions for adults and accompanied children and our playroom project is open for 1-1 and small booked sessions with targeted playroom families.

We aim to open the centre for classes, workshops and some restricted activity in September as safe working allows.

Emergency Food Response at BUCFP - 11-6-20.

As a first response to the crisis we set up a contact free emergency food parcel delivery service. Providing emergency food is not new to us at BUCFP, we normally support approximately 50 households per month, and are a main referrer to Brighton Food Bank in pre pandemic times, however this is normally a face to face service.

We are now in our twelfth week of deliveries and have delivered 1234 parcels with a total of 272 households registered, made up of 408 adults and 206 children. Up until four weeks ago we were supporting households from all areas of Brighton and Hove - from as far West as Southwick/Mile Oak and East as Peacehaven and everything in between.

Since more local food hubs have opened we have been able to refer 90 households to their local food hubs and 100 households no longer require support. We are now supporting 100 households per week, comprising of 154 adults and 74 children.

Each week we call around each household asking if they still need a food parcel, how they are doing generally and whether their situation has changed, if they have any particular needs for their next parcel. These phone calls have been really useful to hear feed back on how this service has helped.

We have started delivering prepared meals from local Brighton restaurants, once a week to 40 centre users that would usually come to us for a low cost lunch. From next week (hopefully) we will be making up recipe kits that will contain everything you need to make a nutritious meal for all the family, these will be included in the emergency food parcels.

At the allotment, we currently have a full rota of volunteers who are working hard at growing, and have been producing salad bags to put in the emergency food boxes that are delivered on a Tuesday.

Street collections have been organised by local volunteers from Coventry Street area, which have now expanded to include collections from other streets in the Seven Dials, Preston Park and Fiveways area. This has proved invaluable to have a weekly supply of ambient foods on a Thursday. As we take requests for items in food parcels and we pack them ourselves we are able to support people who have varied dietary requirements, limited cooking abilities or facilities. This collection forms the majority of our ambient foods going out in parcels.

Other contributions include:

We currently purchase fresh fruit and veg weekly from Sun Harvest using monetary donations to our emergency food project. This all goes towards the veg boxes for emergency food parcels.

Fareshare Sussex - twice per week. Types and quantities greatly vary each time as it depends on what surplus is available. Some is unsuitable for food parcels if so we redistribute to other projects that are preparing meals.

Donations from Eat. Sleep. Repeat - Pay it Forward surplus food donations of mostly bread and fresh fruit and veg.

Brighton & Hove Food Partnership weekly supply of pasta, eggs, beans, tuna and other dried goods - part of their coordinated response of providing food hubs across the city. Fresh fruit and Veg from Brighton Food Factory

Queens Park Labour - weekly donation of dried goods such as noodles, some long life milk and cooking oil.

Amazon wish list - we have created this for our website people purchase items which we are short of e.g nappies, activity packs for children.

Albion Hill group - Bake vegan brownies/cakes to go out in parcels.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this service so far. The following quotes and reviews from users show what difference this has made in such challenging times:

Quotes/reviews from users:

"I don't know how I would have coped without your support, I am a single mum of a child with severe health issues and receiving food from you has given me one less thing to worry about"

"My food parcels from you are the highlight of my week, I think you are all wonderful"

"Thank you so much Alex & the team , we are truly humbled by the dedication & help , massive efforts your are all making for those of us in need of help & support .
It is really scary times for all of us & the constant stress of food worries , can be insurmountable at times. It is the small things that really make a difference to people lives & health . For the people with mental health issues in isolation & petrified to step out of the door . Fear of people staring at you in a mask , when an normal trip to the shops is a massive ordeal on a good day .These vital supplies give us so much more than calories, the treats, they give us mental strength & courage for another day .Thank you so much , so very much , we Love you truly"

"I really appreciate the fact you have put yourselves at risk to help others, I think about you all when I clap for key workers"

"I really enjoy being making meals out of different things each week, using your recipe cards, it's like ready steady cook, it's made me enjoy cooking again"

"What wonderful staff! Super Thanks for the beautiful basket of food delivered by an organization that does everything with a lot of love ... Everything was enjoyed in delicious recipes!
In times of crisis, it is good to have committed people with whom you can count! ..Love this institution"

"I certainly recommend it to users and to companies that want to be partners or simply visit the place.The centre has a capacity to respond very quickly to the real needs of users. It is a source of inspiration that corresponds to the mission of helping those in need. I love this place very much"

Playroom at BUCFP - 11-6-20.

Sadly the playroom has had to physically close as a result of the Covid pandemic. However we have continued to support our children and families in other ways.

We have funded, sourced and provided over a 100 activity packs a week to be sent out in the emergency food parcels BUCFP have been delivering. We have sent out activity packs to all the children registered with the playroom (30 packs every 2 weeks). The playroom has kept in regular / telephone/ email contact with all our families offering more in-depth support to those that need it.

We are facilitating a weekly breakfast club on Zoom where families can share a virtual breakfast! Exchange news, play tell stories and be with each other. The playroom has also been offering 1-1 booked wellbeing sessions in our outdoor space for a child and their parent. We garden, explore the outside and play. (Especially important for those children who have been in lock down and do not have access to a garden)

We have been fortunate to have been able to work with the Komedia so that our families and children can access their children’s Sundae club online and have the activity packs to be able to be fully involved.

We have been active on social media in sharing free activities and resource’s for families to access and to keep in touch with them.

We will continue to support our children and families whilst working towards being able to physically open. We miss all our families and cannot wait till we are all back together again.

Welfare Rights at BUCFP - 11-6-20.

The Welfare Rights & Housing advice service has been taking calls & emails and giving advice remotely throughout the pandemic & lockdown, although only one worker has been doing this for social distancing reasons.

Despite much of the current DWP guidance – such as the lifting of work-search requirements, no face-to-face medical assessments, scrapping the required hours for Working Tax Credits and the dropping of the minimum income floor for the self-employed – demand has been steady. The huge increase in unemployment and Universal Credit claims, medical assessments continuing to be held by phone, and the even longer delays to the processing of disability benefits claims and appeals, especially PIP, where appeals took 13 months to get to Tribunal before the pandemic, are all factors in this. In effect, the many disabled people who fail a medical assessment conducted by phone are having their benefits stopped in the midst of a pandemic.

Other particular injustices have been the decision by the DWP not to apply the £20 per week increase in unemployment benefit to the disability benefit Employment & Support Allowance, thereby financially disadvantaging many thousands of disabled people, and the continued imposition of the benefit cap, now paradoxically penalising more claimants since the small increase in unemployment benefits.

Looking forward, we’re anticipating more demand than ever in the future, especially when the relaxation of DWP guidance is lifted and local authorities resume reclaiming Housing & Council Tax overpayments, including issuing of eviction proceedings from social housing, are combined with the massive increase in joblessness and Universal Credit claims.

None of the challenges presented by the future can be met without the expert advice given by our team of volunteer advisors who give up their time for free and keep the service running.

Welfare Benefits, May 2020.

Welfare Benefits, May 2020.

While we welcome that the government has made some generous changes to the welfare system as a result of COVID-19, it has to be acknowledged that this really only amounts to reversing 2 of the austerity driven cuts it has introduced since 2010.

What's changed?

Universal Credit has seen an increase in the basic amount, by around £20 a week - it could be argued bringing it back up to the level it would have otherwise been were it not for the benefits freeze.

LHA has been increased back up to the 30th percentile. This is the maximum payable on housing benefit and the UC housing element for those in the private rental sector. Again, this is an increase that simply brings LHA back up to the level it was before the benefits freeze.

Deductions from benefit, and the minimum income floor have been removed for this temporary period.

What's not changed?

Aside from the 2 increases listed above, every other austerity driven cut since 2010 remains in place. The 2 child limit; The benefit cap; Capital limits in UC; The impact of the benefits freeze remains in place for those on JSA and ESA; Reductions in the child element for UC.

Unprecedented need.

In the week of 27th April 2020 in Brighton & Hove 40 emergency food projects gave out food parcels to 3001 households, supporting 4831+ people (including at least 996 children) and served 3966 meals.

Prior to the crisis emergency food providers were giving out 420 parcels a week.

BUCFP supports the call by a coalition of charities - https://www.trusselltrust.org/2020/05/01/coalition-call/ - to temporarily increase welfare benefits in line with the crisis in which we find ourselves.

"To help the nation weather the storm of this pandemic the coalition is urgently calling on the government to provide a Coronavirus Emergency Income Support Scheme that supports individuals and families who are already facing or at serious risk of financial hardship. It also calls on the government to work with charities in the anti-poverty sector to develop this scheme and ensure it can be put in place quickly, treats everyone with dignity, and leaves no-one behind.

The coalition proposes this temporary package to include measures such as:

• Increasing benefits that go to families to help with the costs of raising children

• Extending the suspension of benefit deductions to cover advance payments – these are often taken to cover the five-week wait for a first Universal Credit payment

• Lifting the benefit cap and two-child policy to ensure this support scheme benefits everyone

• Ensuring local authorities in England can provide effective crisis support to individuals and families."  

Wish list.

During the COVID-19 pandemic BUCFP continues its support of vulnerable people and families. We are sourcing, packing and delivering free weekly emergency food parcels to those that need it. One of the ways you could help us to continue to do this is by purchasing something off our Amazon wish list. We have listed items that we can either pop into a food parcel as a treat for a child or that are in high demand in our food parcels. The list is live and will react to what we need so you can check as often as you would like.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/3F886JYEIW8LB/ref=cm_wl_huc_view

Our postal address, if this doesn’t show is,

BUCFP

6 TILBURY PLACE
BRIGHTON, BN2 0GY

Many thanks

ALLOTMENT STATMENT

Due to current ongoing situation with Covid -19 we are making changes to the way in which we run our allotment sessions. In order to keep our volunteers safe and comply with the government guidelines on social distancing we will be offering sessions by appointment only.

The sessions will still take place on a Monday - but we have extended the times from 10am - 4pm, in 1 1/2 hour blocks (10-11.30, 11.30-1pm, 1-2.30pm, 2.30-4pm). You will be met at the gate at a safe distance at the agreed time. Unfortunately we will not be able to offer refreshments at this time, so please bring a drink of water with you.

We understand the need for people to get out exercising in this uncertain time and would be happy to see you - if you would like to attend please contact Carol via email at bucfp.food.project@gmail.com

PLEASE NOTE THIS SERVICE IS ONLY OPEN TO EXISTING ALLOTMENT VOLUNTEERS

BUCFP Statement on COVID-19

In view of the current situation regarding COVID-19 pandemic, we feel that in order to protect our Centre users, volunteers and workers we have decided to close to the public & volunteers for the next two weeks until 31st March at the earliest.

However, the situation is changing daily and we want to do everything in our power to make sure everyone is safe. We will therefore check in with the situation before reopening on 31st March. Please check our website and Facebook page for daily updates in the meantime.

We realise that our services are a vital life line for some of the most vulnerable in our community. We wish to be as helpful as we can in the coming weeks. Therefore, staff will be running a closed door emergency food parcel service only as long as is practically possible.

• We will be handing out pre-prepared emergency food parcels (one per household per week) – until our supplies run out 10-4pm Tuesday-Friday.

• Please contact us before hand if you require a parcel or more info: 01273 601 211

• We require the following information in order to monitor this service – name, date of birth, address, contact number and number in household.

In times of crisis it is so important for communities to remain strong and look out for those who are most vulnerable. If you know of anyone who is particularly isolated without family, please get in touch – we will try and reach out and help where we can or point you in the right direction of other support available during these difficult times.

Playroom Vacancy. - Early Years Lead – permanent contract.

Early Years Lead – permanent contract £20,344 per annum pro rata; £10.54 per hour (Plus auto enrol pension) 20 hours per week. The playroom is open Tuesday to Friday, from 10am to 1pm. Actual working hours to be arranged

Closing date: 5pm Wednesday 8th April Required qualification level: Minimum Level 3 (EYP/YET desirable but not essential)

If you would like more information please email bucfpplayroom@gmail.com

Please download the following documents relevant to the role:

BUCFP Early Years Lead job ref 2980 (confirmed).doc

BUCFP Person Specification Early Years Lead-1.doc

Early years lead job description relevant.doc

Please complete and return the following application form to bucfpplayroom@gmail.com 

Or by mail attn: The Playroom, Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project, 6 Tilbury Place Brighton BN2 0GY marked playroom post

Early Years Lead Application Form original 2018.doc