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.