Colne Open Door Centre | index.html - website

The Open Door Centre is Vital in providing Financial well being to the local community. 

The Open Door Centre aims to give people of mixed abilities/disabilities and disadvantage communities an equal advantage/chance in life with regards jobs, housing, employment and benefits, avoiding social isolation and poverty. 

Over the last 12 months there has been a huge increase in food bank referrals, the money will help provide the necessary provisions for families and individuals struggling to make ends meat. They have an onsite cafe that provides free meals for children including breakfast club and highly subsidised meals(£3.50 max) where people can have a warm meal and meet others. The cafe is the hub of the charity and people are encouraged to go and socialise as well as receiving the care they need. The need for these services has more than doubled in numbers from last year, some weeks there can be upwards of 30 food parcels per week going out to the Pendle and Ribble valley area, this shows what a vital job they are doing and how much of a difference they are making to the local community.   

The money could extend to other services such as more counseling being offered for individuals with addiction issues or coming from domestic violence relationships and other mental health problems. 

The Charity also assists the elderly living with completing forms, and dealing with updated technology such as gas/electric, other bills and benefits that can only be accessed online. 

Over the last 12 months they have helped with housing crisis's and prevented homelessness in which they have seen a 50% increase, this can include speaking the local authority re housing and other local charities that are able to assist. 

Here at West Craven Insurance Services we helped with their Christmas Appeal, we did this by raising money and gifts/toys for children. the charity provides toys/gifts and Christmas hampers including food to those at risk of going without at Christmas time. Last Christmas they provided 527 toys to children that were classed as vulnerable and 432 Christmas hampers to families in need.    

Financial Wellbeing - 

The Open Door Centre has financial wellbeing for our community at the very forefront of the crisis services that we provide. The charity is located in the deprived ward of Waterside in Pendle, an area of declining employment and high social deprivation. Pendle has the highest level of child poverty of any UK local authority, with 43.2 per cent of children under the age of 16 living in relatively low income families.

These worrying statistics emphasise that supporting financial wellbeing for our community is a key priority for our charity, we strive to ensure that many families and individuals do fall into serious financial difficulty and we work hard to help support members of our community out of debt and into a period of financial stability.

There are many ways that the charity supports with financial wellbeing, for example, we offer budgeting support for families and individuals who are facing financial difficulty, and of which is having an impact on a person’s mental health. We see first-hand how financial difficulty causes a person’s mental health to plummet, for some people the hole they find themselves can feel impossible to leave behind, they feel like they are trapped and helpless. This is where we offer guidance, support and hope, we work with agencies on behalf of our community members to reduce debts and put affordable payment plans in place. We make a lasting difference to a person’s financial wellbeing, not just for a week or a month, but for their future moving forward. 

We work with our community to check if you eligible to get extra help or money. We support individuals and families in our community to claim benefits or increase your current benefits if they’re struggling to afford essential things - such as food and housing. You could be a pensioner on a low income, sick or disabled, responsible for children or a carer. We will assist you to apply for additional financial support, for example, if you are elderly and struggle with the online world. 

We provide food parcels to families and individuals who are struggling financially, the prevention of food poverty is a key part of the charities ethos. The Colne Open Door Centre is situated in Colne, in the borough of Pendle. Pendle has the highest level of child poverty of any UK local authority, with 43.2 per cent of children under the age of 16 living in relatively low income families. The charity has various schemes to assist with food poverty, such as our "Kids Eat Free Forever" scheme, which ensures every child in our local area has access to a free hot meal. The charity operates a food bank, which is now the most utilised in Pendle, and also provides free hot meals and drinks to the homeless and most vulnerable in our community. Our food bank is heavily utilised by statutory services such as social services, NHS teams, schools and colleges. The charity ensures that if a family visits the Open Door Centre on a regular basis for food poverty we take the steps to spend time with them to find out the root cause of their problems and find a solution to address this. We work hard to ensure that a family or individual does not become reliant on a food bank and support them towards healthy financial wellbeing. 

And we provide all of this support for FREE.

There is never a cost for support at our charity.