Chap Partnerships...
CHAP has been delivering services in the local community for over 20 years and is therefore well established and well connected with partner organisations.
Information and advice relating to housing, welfare rights and debt issues is provided, with services being provided across Ayrshire. The services offer a balance of reactive and proactive assistance. All of the services delivered by the organisation have in common the purpose of ensuring that individuals are not disadvantaged through a lack of awareness or information regarding their rights.
The ethos of all services provided supports and promotes social inclusion and social justice for all. CHAP supports those individuals most in need to receive much needed information and support to address issues and problems that affect their everyday lives. The service empowers individuals to have their views and opinions heard by the decision makers and overcome the barriers of literacy and communication difficulties.
By providing an informed choice and working in partnership with both statutory and third sector organisations, CHAP assist individuals to reach a long-term solution for their situation to combat issues of social exclusion. The organisation looks at addressing all of the issues which result in the situation that the individual presents with and carries out partnership working to ensure that service users are able to access support to deal with any underlying causes which have resulted in their current situation.
The delivery model is flexible with staff and managers committed to empowering individuals through advocacy and representation. There is often a reluctance shown by individuals to approach perceived statutory services therefore CHAP create an environment in which service users feel valued, welcomed and accepted. Time is spent building a positive working relationship with the service user and staff use language that services users can understand and avoid using terminology which may not easily understood. The organisation works with some very vulnerable clients with complex needs and is able to adapt services to be fit for purpose.
CHAP delivers services in the three areas of housing, welfare benefits, and money advice to Type III level. We continuously strive for improvement and development and have an excellent reputation amongst service providers and clients for delivering high quality services and have applied various quality control mechanisms to ensure compliance with the Scottish National Standards for Information and Advice Providers.
CHAP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (firm reference number 689255) and has been approved by the Accountant in Bankruptcy to assist individuals to apply to the Debt Arrangement Scheme or apply for bankruptcy where this is a suitable option. All senior managers within the organisation have successfully undertaken the ‘Giving Good Debt Advice’ Advice Work and Casework Specialist modules, which were administered by the Money Advice Service.
The organisation is customer focused and person centred and is able to combine a variety of services to address the issues that individuals present with. All of our services have evolved due to staff identifying a ‘gap in the market’ and have ensured that local residents have access to quality and timely services.
Services can be provided on an annual contract: each being priced to meet the needs of the individual customer. Although the principles and independence of the service are of the utmost priority to the organisation, we are happy to ‘tailor make’ the service to best serve the requirements of our purchasers. We recruit staff locally to deliver the service because we are of the opinion that local knowledge plays a large part in achieving success. If you wish to discuss purchasing a service, please contact us.
Work In Schools
CHAP has been delivering homelessness prevention workshops to secondary schools across North Ayrshire since 2005. Primarily, the project intended to deliver an awareness raising session to all fourth-year pupils within the schools, focusing on homelessness and leaving home. As well as this, it was envisaged that the project would also be involved in delivering a more in-depth programme to young people following an ‘alternative curriculum’ within the schools. This was to ensure that those who may be more vulnerable to experiencing homelessness were targeted appropriately.
The aim of the sessions is to prevent youth homelessness, raise awareness of the reality of homelessness and to destigmatise the issue. It is intended that the lessons will encourage young people to carefully consider their options before taking the decision to leave home and to enable them to identify who would be able to assist them with housing issues.
It is hoped that the information sessions will encourage a more carefully considered route towards independent living and will make young people aware of what help exists and how to get it, therefore reducing the number of youth homeless presentations.
From all the pupils that the project worked with in 2019 during the course of the PSE and Alternative Curriculum input (1380 pupils), an overall 95% conveyed that they found the session useful and 86% of these young people have indicated that they would consider leaving home more carefully after receiving the lesson.
Alongside the work with fourth year pupils, CHAP can also offer delivery of a workshop to 6th year pupils, which focuses on student accommodation and the skills/knowledge that young people would require if living away from home. It is hoped that the workshop, with related information and activities, will encourage a more carefully considered route towards independent living and will make young people aware of the difficulties/issues involved in studying away from home.
Input is also offered to youth groups. When we use the term ‘youth groups’, we refer to self-development programmes or vocational programmes that are offered to young people once they have left school, as opposed to traditional youth groups that are for recreational purposes. The input is usually delivered either over 2 half days or 6 shorter sessions (whichever is more suitable to the individual group) and this input, as with the alternative curriculum input, provides a more in-depth examination of homelessness and independent living. There are various activities used in the youth group and alternative curriculum programmes, with the emphasis being on experiential learning, allowing the young people to learn whilst having fun with their peers.
We try to ensure that as much of our delivery is as interactive as possible, since feedback from young people indicates that they gain the most from such activities. Many of these activities can take the form of quizzes and games, in which young people can either work individually, in pairs or in teams. With the use of an interactive programme, we can address several learning styles, providing a rich variety of instructional approaches which can educate in the methods that students learn best. Group work and interactive materials also motivate student interaction and cooperative learning.