Citizens Advice are the recipients of the first major grant to be awarded by Asda on the Isle of Wight.
Their project, of which Asda will fund £4,152, will see a purpose-built advice pod installed at Aspire Ryde – with phone and internet – that will give Citizens Advice a permanent home in the well-used and much loved community building and create a confidential, private space for local people to receive information and advice.
Citizens Advice IW have been working out of the Aspire building since the beginning of 2017, as the building has developed, so have the ideas to make Citizens Advice a more permanent base and this idea has been in development for over a year.
Gretel Ingham from Citizens Advice says:
“This is an exciting step forward in our journey to extend our charity’s services in Ryde. We are looking forward to getting this project up and running as quickly as we can now that we have the finances from Asda to help us achieve this”.
Clare Jones, the Asda Community Champion adds:
“I am especially pleased to have worked with Gretel to secure the funding for the CAB Pod in Aspire. When I heard how many individuals and families would benefit from the confidential space, internet access and direct advice from CAB, I was determined to ensure that this would be my 1st Significant Grant awarded by Asda Foundation for the Island Community”.
Jess Higgins, Aspire Project Support adds:
“We are thrilled to be working with Citizens Advice IW on this project and feel lucky to have earned this grant from Asda, it will be put to really good use, making sure the advice services operating from this building finally have a proper base”.
Citizens Advice IW work across the Isle of Wight and make sure that they take their services out to the community, running Advice sessions in locations in Freshwater, Cowes, Newport, East Cowes, Sandown, Ventnor and Ryde. Around 20% of the 7,000 local people that Citizens Advice IW helped with free advice last year came from Ryde and 53% of these had a disability or long term health condition.
