SVP

When Tracey Had Difficulty Coping

Following a message from the Coffee Lounge at St Mary’s Community Centre, Tracey was referred to the SVP. She had been upset and didn’t know what to do. Her baby was unwell, the bills wouldn’t stop coming and she was just getting down with it all.

Juggling hospital visits, getting the other children to school and paying the bills was all too much.

Two members of the SVP went to visit Tracey.The two volunteers visited Tracey at home, at first just to get to know her, her family and what she was struggling with.

Firstly by being a listening ear, the SVP volunteers were reassured Tracey that there would be something they could suggest to help her.

Tracey has 4 children, the baby is unwell and has a lot of hospital appointments, and her boy at Primary school has asthma and allergies.

She has energy debts, struggles with running her car, she has problems with her house that is in poor repair, with window catches not shutting and wind blowing in all the time.

Tracey felt everything was too much to cope with. With Tracey, the volunteers made a list of her problems. Then they talked about what could be done about each problem.

Tracey’s worst problem was the wind coming through the window that wouldn’t latch, so she couldn’t keep the lounge warm for the baby.

The SVP volunteers visited her regularly, writing letters to housing to get the essential repairs done. After understanding her benefits and debts they suggested help with keeping the house warm. Places to go to reduce putting the heating on at home, like Warm Space venues around the town.

Tracey visited Citizens Advice (CAB) and Christians Against Poverty (CAP) for help with her energy debts. With encouragement from the volunteers she made changes to her home to reduce costs.

Each week the volunteers met Tracey to support and reassure her. The debts and help with budgetting reduced her bills over time. She also changed to low energy light bulbs, used thicker curtains and draught excluders at the room doors.

Friendship and trust grew between Tracey and the volunteers over the months of visiting. Tracey’s mental health improved and she is looking to get a part time job in term time, once baby is at nursery.

Tracey does not need the regular home visits now but, she comes to the Community Centre for coffee and often ends up chatting to volunteers who are always happy to help her if she has any worries.

This is what Tracey had to say about the SVP:

“The SVP were there in my harder days, the support and team they have, are amazing at what they do xxx”

From Pillar to Post to a Settled Family Life

Carolyn and Kevin are a local couple with a young family that had been living in in a small hotel in Bamber Bridge. They were then moved to a flat in Leyland and finally to a small family housing association house on an estate on the other side of Leyland from the flat. The husband had been made redundant and the family were struggling.

The SVP visited several times and were able to arrange a food bank referral, provided a shopping trolley to use when visiting the Food Bank, gave them a modest amount of market vouchers to buy food, helped with school placing for the eldest child, provided a warm coat and other clothing for the children and provided some furniture from the Furniture Bank.

The family are now well settled.

Family of 6 Finding It Difficult To Make Ends Meet

During a visit to this family, we discovered that 2 adults and 4 children were living in a small house and finding life difficult. Dad Charlie, was unemployed at the time.

One of the 4 children has learning difficulties and another is the mother’s sister. The family had three main problems – lack of proper beds for 2 of the children, an acute shortage of storage space and not quite enough money for Mum Linda to buy fresh fruit and vegetables.

At the time, our group had received a donation from a will legacy which enabled us to buy 2 single divan ottoman type beds with storage and provide a small amount of market vouchers for a 4 month period to tide them over. Dad eventually found a job and the family has been fine since our temporary support finished.

Worried Single Parent Mum Being Too Hard On Herself

Following a referral from her GP, we visited a single parent Mum, called Sandra, who has 2 young children. Mum was very worried and being overly hard on herself. Mum was under a lot of stress brought on by a number of reasons. We agreed to visit her regularly for a short while so she could share her worries and get “things off her mind”.

Sandra keeps her house very neat and tidy and one of her initial worries was that she could not keep her floors clean because her vacuum cleaner was broken and that she temporarily couldn’t keep up with her energy bills. So, we bought her a replacement vacuum cleaner and did a one off modest top up on her gas and electricity payment. We also signposted her to the Food Bank and St Mary’s Community Centre where she was able to take her children to participate in free Christmas activities.

Louise Turns Trauma On Its Head

The Leyland Furniture Scheme brought Louise to our attention after they delivered a bed to her in December one year.

Over the course of a 4-month period a number of visits were carried out by several different members. During the visits, Louse felt she was able to open up to us and share some of her other needs besides furniture.

On the first visit Louise explained that she and her family had been rehoused to another property in a different area to escape exploitation of a criminal element and the unwanted attention of an individual against whom a protection order was issued. At the time, Louise also discovered that her mother had taken quite ill too.

Not surprisingly, these traumas had a very negative impact of the family’s physical and  emotional wellbeing.

Louise told us that she was bipolar and had a spinal disorder called scoliosis. One of her sons was autistic and facing problems changing schools. Another child was experiencing emotional problems.

After our first visit, we returned with some food from a modest food shop we did, food parcels from Leyland Food Bank and made a referral for her so she could use the Food Bank.

During subsequent chats, we discovered that Louise needed to cheer up her living room to help her mood and become more positive. 3 of our team were able to provide her with paint and wallpaper they had spare and she set to immediately and redecorated her living room. A few pictures provided by the Furniture Bank added the finishing touch that helped her do a really nice job!

This did a lot for her confidence, and both her and her family’s morale.

Louise was having therapy and we helped her in this respect by providing some adult art materials to complement her therapy.

Our visits continued but although her family were in a better place another big problem arose – her cooker blew up and was completely broken. At the time, we had been given some funds from a legacy left by a kind parishioner that we used to buy her a new one.

And following our liaison with The Leyland Furniture Bank, we were able to provide her with a preloved electric recliner chair and larger bed to provide more comfort and relief from her back condition. 

One of the final steps we took to support her was to provide information about support groups she could use to get advice to support her children’s emotional issues.

Louise and her family got over this negative hump in their lives and they continuing on a more positive note in their life’s journey. This is what Louse had to say about our help:

“Well, I thank him up above and appreciate all the congregation at St Mary’s. I’ve never had help and support like St Mary’s has shown me and my family at a time in my life where there’s been a big change moving house with health concerns and  financial worries. I can’t thank you all enough”