Category: Cost of Living Crisis

Join Good Things Foundation’s Digital Inclusion Network 

Good Things Foundation’s London Digital Inclusion Service, Get Online London, is made up of grassroots organisations across London that are all working to deliver digital inclusion support in their local communities.

If you’re a community organisation based in London that is or wants to support your community members to get online and access the benefits of digital – then joining the service will help you do exactly that. It is free to join and offers a range of free services, such as:

• Access to the National Databank and National Device Bank
• Free training and resources
• Networking opportunities
• Access to our online learning platform, Learn My Way.

The National Databank is giving free mobile data (as well as free calls and texts) to people who can’t afford their internet connection. By signing up to the network, you will be eligible to join and start giving out data vouchers.

So, if you’re an organisation based in London that wants to embed digital inclusion support, then participation is free and all you need to do is join the National Digital Inclusion Network.

Find out more and sign up here or contact hello@goodthingsfoundation.org for more information.

This tool from Turn2Us helps individuals search for grants that might help them pay for energy and utility costs – money which doesn’t have to be paid back.  Use the Turn2Us online Grants Search tool to match you to grants for which you may be eligible.

https://grants-search.turn2us.org.uk/

Food Aid Resources
The London’s Lifelines website now has a page dedicated to food aid resources, specifically for organisations providing food to those hardest hit by the crisis. It’s still in the early stages and we are looking for more content to add, so if you are a food aid organisation and would like us to include any information, please contact lvsg@londonplus.org.

Cost of Living Document
Our cost of living support and resources document is filled with useful resources for those experiencing difficulties as a result of the the cost of living crisis. We’re always updating it, so it’s worth checking to see if there’s anything new.

Cost of living: good practice and ideas       

London Plus is compiling examples of good practice, insights and innovative ideas across London aimed at mitigating the impacts of the rising cost of living. 

For contents and ease of navigation, please use the document outline pane on the left of the document; you may need to click on the icon for this to appear. 

Please share any initiatives or good practice examples you’ve seen or been involved in, by emailing us.  You can use the same link to let us know if any corrections or updates are required. 

London Plus also has a Cost of Living Support and Resources Document containing links to helpful resources for individuals and organisations.

Camden Council have put together a couple of guides to help residents keep active and healthy during the cost of living crisis. There are lots of links from their webpages to help find information and activities to support residents at this time.

Keep active and healthy – Camden Council – Free and low cost activity guide – eg includes free football with Arsenal in the Community, Kids Swim for £1 etc..

Keep active and healthy – Camden Council  – Keep active and health with a health condition.

Living with a health condition can make life unpredictable at times, and can make moving more challenging at times. However, being physically active can improve your health and wellbeing and help manage symptoms of your condition. There’s lots of different ways to get active. Some can even be done from the comfort of your own home.

The AskCPAG website has recently added a number of new resources for advisers on the Cost of living.

Created for advisers, this new area of the website features time-saving checklists to help you find additional sources of support for your clients after you’ve completed a general benefit check. Checklists include help with housing costs, emergency one-off payments, help for unpaid carers, plus much more. They also provide other resources on cost of living payments, early warning systems to evidence how changes to the benefit system impact on wellbeing of children and families, resources to help with policy work, and more.

https://askcpag.org.uk/publications/-242429/cost_of_living

Warm space at Lauderdale House

Lauderdale House is opening its doors this winter to anyone in search of a warm space. There will be tables set up for studying, free wifi and a quiet craft area.
The sessions run until 28 March, and take place on Tuesdays (3.30pm – 7.30pm) and Saturdays (10am – 2pm). No need to book in advance!
Everyone is welcome, but please note under 15s must be accompanied by a parent or older sibling aged 18+

To learn more, please click here

New Warm Spaces Initiative

Castlehaven Community Association has teamed up with The Pirate Castle and the London Irish Centre to provide free hot soup, warm spaces, activities, and one-to-one advice sessions for the local community

To find out more, please click here

Warm Hub at West Hampstead Community Centre

West Hampstead Community Centre offers a free warm space and a hot bowl of soup to anyone who needs it.
They are located on 17 Dornfell Street, NW6 1QN. The Warm Hub is open Monday to Thursday between 12:00 and 14:00. Everyone is welcome.
The Warm Hub is sponsored by Camden Council and The Hampstead Wells & Campden Trust

Camden Council Cost of Living Resources

Advice Leaflet and Communication Tools

Thank you for everything you are doing to support Camden residents with the cost-of-living crisis. Please see below some more cost of living resources that may be helpful for you and the residents you support.

Cost of Living Resources

• Cost of living advice and support booklet – this includes information on a range of issues including food, energy bills, debt and accessing all of the help you’re entitled to. Download here.
• Translated posters on warm welcome spaces – following your feedback (thank you!), these are now available in Arabic, Kurdish, Lingala, Somali, Swahili, Sylheti and Turkish and can be downloaded here. We’re also getting them translated into Ukrainian and Russian.
• Cost of living crisis advice bus: in collaboration with advice partners including Citizens Advice and Mary Ward Legal Centre, we’re running cost of living advice clinics from our vaccine bus across Camden over the next couple of months. More information can be found at gov.uk/winterevents.
• Video scripts: we know that residents really value hearing from trusted community leaders like yourselves so we are developing short video scripts to support you to record short videos to share key information and advice with residents. These will be available in English and community languages, with an ask to record a short video to share via local WhatsApp groups, voice notes and social media. We will share more information on this as soon as we can – if you speak another language and are keen to record a video, please let us know.
• Mental health advice leaflet
• Energy advice leaflet
• Food advice leaflet

Warm welcome spaces: thanks so much to those of you who are providing and/or helping to promote ‘warm welcome’ spaces, which provide a safe and warm space for residents this winter. If you haven’t already, please help us to promote these spaces with your local community. More information can be found at gov.uk/warmwelcome and posters can be downloaded here.