March 15, 2023

An award of £10k is helping Cumbria CVS and Cumbria Deaf Association to provide additional support for those struggling with the cost of living.

The funding, from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and NAVCA (National Association for Voluntary and Community Action) was awarded to enable us to continue our work around financial hardship, which we have been involved in since the early days of the pandemic. There is still much to do in this area, and the extra resource will help us to ensure that local groups and local people are aware of, and making use of, resources that have been developed.

This has already resulted in a briefing session for staff, held online this week, with plans to work with our networks and member organisations to build their awareness of the resources and support available.

As part of the agreement, we are making funding available to Cumbria Deaf Association, who have identified a lack of accessibility of the current core Cost of Living Support resources with their users.

They report that the deaf community feel left behind in many ways and now need improved access to reduce the feeling of isolation and loss of personal independence. They will be offering drop in support sessions to their groups with targeted, bespoke information on cost of living, provided in a meaningful format for the deaf community. To build upon this, they will also be offering training to front line staff, from all sectors, to raise awareness of the additional needs and communication barriers for deaf people.

A critical output of this activity will be the production of BSL information, to aid the promotion of events, activities and resources across the county. This will go a substantial way to not only break down communication barriers, but facilitate access to essential cost of living resources that this community need to access, which is currently a barrier and health inequality for them.