Allison Emerson, from Stanley became aware of Five Lamps through a friend who had used our services and was impressed enough to gather together another 12 friends to attend a ‘Capacity Builders’ workshop being delivered in her local community centre.
Capacity Builders is a course, which aims to help and advise people who are financially excluded and have had previous problems with finance and indebtedness. We discuss a wide range of issues from budgeting, debts, APR’s, doorstep lenders, alternative forms of finance (Five Lamps personal loan and Credit Unions), utilities and how to save money. We also discuss the options and help available for people if they are looking to get back into employment or self-employment. After the workshop, our customers also have the option of a one to one meeting with a Five Lamps Loan Officer.
At the Capacity Builders workshop in Stanley, Five Lamps had also invited the Manager of the local Credit Union (Prince Bishops Credit Union) to attend to give a talk to the group about who the Credit Union are and what services are available from them. This was very productive as the majority of the attendees had not even heard of the Credit Union; however 10 of them actually signed up and became members on the day.
Five Lamps aim is that when a person has left the Capacity Builders workshop they have more confidence in being able to manage their finances and are also more aware of the options, help and advice that is available to them.
Allison was a very active participant in the workshop and was willing to discuss some of the problems she had experienced in the past, this opened up the group who then continued to talk about their own experiences.
John Hird was approached at the end of the session by Allison who wanted to discuss in more depth her outstanding debts and the problems she was having with the creditors, so a one to one follow-up meeting was arranged.
At the meeting, John asked Allison to bring all the information in relation to her finances and they agreed a plan that would help resolve the situation for her. This started with an in-depth income and expenditure review so that John could assess her ability to make offers to repay her creditors and resolve the issue of letters arriving daily from creditors and numerous telephone calls chasing her for money. This was having an adverse effect on Allison who did not know who to turn to for any help on dealing with this stressful situation.
John has since written to 7 creditors in total to offer and arrange a realistic repayment plan. Allison said ‘I want to resolve my past problems and make a fresh start with my finances’.
Allison is starting to turn things around by facing up to her past problems and feels she is moving forward by dealing with them. She has now joined Prince Bishops Credit Union and is trying to save for the first time and is also looking to get back into work after being unemployed for 5 years. She has been working as a volunteer in her local youth centre and also the charity shop in the town centre and enjoys being a part of the community.
Allison said
“I can’t thank Five Lamps and John enough for the help and support they have given me. I really enjoyed the Capacity Builders course – it was great to talk about my problems with other people who are going through the same thing. I am trying to save with the Credit Union so I don’t fall back into debt”.
Capacity Builders is funded by One North East Third Sector Capacity Fund, administered on their behalf by Rocket Science.