Health and social care |
Disability |
Drugs and addictions |
Healthy living |
People and communities |
Disability |
Domestic violence |
Education and literacy |
Homelessness and housing |
LGBT |
Offenders and ex offenders |
Older people |
Race and ethnicity |
Refugees |
Women |
Social justice and democracy |
Employment |
Law and legal support
Organisation aims / mission / values
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Clapton Community Drop In is a grass roots project that offers real and immediate help to people in our community who are struggling to understand the systems that they need navigate to maintain or regain a safe and secure life.
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It runs on Sundays alongside the Urban Table soup kitchen and on Wednesdays in our main hall and offers a friendly and non-judgemental service where every person who drops in will be listened to and offered help and signposting to give them the support they need.
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The support offered is varied and responds to the individual needs of each person and is often related to huge rent increases, benefit caps and the housing crisis. Examples of the type of support regularly offered includes:. Explaining the content of formal letters from government agencies. Enabling access to food banks. Signposting people to night shelters. GP registration. Support in processing benefits claims so that they are not pushed into homelessness. Helping people to access IT to be able to apply for jobs. Working with other projects to give people clothes that can be used for interviews.
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We are able to offer this service through the dedicated work of our Project Coordinator Alison and a collection of amazing volunteers. We have supported over 250 people in the last two years and the number of people seeking help is increasing (as are the national statistics on homelessness).
How we deliver these aims
We recruit volunteers who work alongside our guests, supporting them to access services and benefits that they need. We encourage our guests to support their peers, passing on information and skills they have learned whilst being helped themselves.We have helped many people claim and receive Disability Benefits, issued hundreds of Food Bank vouchers, helped with the application for European Settled Status, referred to specialist organisations, and shown many people how to get and use email.
Who benefits from our work
Anyone is able to walk in and use our service. We welcome people from all backgrounds and walks of life. We try to recruit volunteers who speak community languages, so that we have a culturally competent service.
Many of our guests have complex needs and struggle to deal with bureaucratic and impersonal systems, and with larger organisations.
Difficulties include, english being a new language, poor literacy, learning difficulties, mental and physical health conditions and disabilities, lack of ID, lack of computer literacy and internet access.
