Advising Islington Together
Frontline staff in Community Hubs become Welfare First Aiders to help signpost local residents to the advice and support they need.
Advising Islington Together is a Big Lottery funded project that aims to help advice organisations collaborate effectively with each other and to improve outcomes for those seeking advice in the borough.
Through this initiative we want to ensure that local advice organisations can share expertise and to make quick and effective referrals. Advising Islington Together helps us work with small local groups and charities, and capacity build their core team.
A key objective is to support the development of new funding streams at a time of unprecedented cuts in public spending.
Octopus is a member of the steering group, along with:
- Islington Law Centre
- Citizen's Advice Bureau
- Islington's People's Rights
- Disability Action in Islington
- Help on Your Doorstep
- Renaisi
- Voluntary Action Islington
- Latin American Women's Rights Service
- Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation
- IMECE Women's Centre
Advising Isington Together have recently helped to create a report titled 'It's no fun being on benefits' which includes research into the effect that governement welfare reforms are having on the people of Islington. They worked with Every Voice and Islington Community Network to create the report, which can be found here.