The Vine is a haven; helping, supporting, enabling and empowering our local community, because everybody should have somebody to turn to.

Often, individuals need help with their benefits – either claiming new ones or managing existing benefits. We can either make the phone call on the client’s behalf or help a client fill in an electronic form.

We often help with housing which takes many forms, but is usually either helping a person who is homeless, or helping an individual sustain their tenancy. We can speak to landlords (private, council and housing associations) to liaise on the client’s behalf, helping to settle any problems that may have arisen. We also help with negotiating with utilities suppliers to ensure that individuals are on the correct tariff and claiming any discounts they are eligible for including winter fuel discounts.

We can help with obtaining furniture and white goods when people move into accommodation or when something needs replacing. Support staff are good listeners and it is not unusual for a client to offload all their problems on us so we can help to prioritise steps forward.

We always aim to instil an ethos of personal responsibility helping people as they move towards independence.

Support staff are also often called upon to help in ”out of the ordinary” situations. Some recent ones include helping someone apply for a school place for their child; applying for school transport for a child; helping someone book flight tickets to see a sick relative and help to apply for a visa for a client wishing for his family to join him in the UK.

We don’t believe in saying “no” whenever we are asked to help and always aim to offer the best service possible to anyone who comes to our door.