Suffolk’s New Surviving Winter Appeal launches with £100,000 match fund
If you would like to receive individual support from the Surviving Winter Appeal, you can contact Citizen’s Advice on 01473 298634. To support this The Surviving Winter Appeal, please donate online by clicking the button above, telephone 01473 602602 (during office hours), visit any branch of Suffolk Building Society to make a payment over the counter or fill in the coupon in today’s East Anglian Daily Times and send a cheque made payable to Suffolk Community Foundation to The Old Barns, Peninsula Business Centre, Wherstead, Ipswich, IP9 2BB.
With poverty levels in Suffolk on the rise and the costs of living continuing to soar, Suffolk’s Annual Surviving Winter Appeal has never been more vital to ensure that those in need in Suffolk receive the support they require to stay safe and warm in their homes this winter.
This year’s Suffolk Surviving Winter Appeal kicks off with a brand new programme of support for Suffolk and a £100,000 fundraising match challenge to double every donation from the public up to this amount!
Over the past decade, Suffolk’s Surviving Winter Appeal has raised over £1.2M and heated the homes of many thousands of people in need in Suffolk.
Thanks to the generosity of the people of Suffolk, last year alone £298K was raised and 1500 homes heated across every corner of Suffolk, more than ever before, but the needs it addresses are sadly on the increase in our County and this year’s appeal will need to support even more people in Suffolk.
As highlighted in Suffolk’s Hidden Needs 3 Report, published by University of Suffolk, 22,000 older people in the county are income deprived and this figure rises to 75,000 when people of all ages are included.
Almost one in ten people in Suffolk are facing severe financial challenges this winter. However, as the impact of Covid continues, combined with a surge in energy prices and a sharp rise in the broader cost of living, it is very likely that even more Suffolk people will experience challenges keeping warm this winter. For these reasons this year’s Surviving Winter appeal has its work cut out and we hope that the Suffolk Community Foundation’s offer to double every penny donated will inspire everyone to step forward and give what they can afford to set the fundraising off to a strong start. We are already taking calls with requests for support and we want to be able to continue to say yes to everyone who needs support. As always, we encourage those who need their Winter Fuel Payment from the government to keep it and stay safe and warm, but for those who don’t, we simply say, If you don’t need it, please donate what you can to the Surviving Winter Appeal. Every penny donated by the generous people of Suffolk will be quickly distributed to those in our county who most need support.
As in previous years, every penny donated will be used to heat the homes of those in need in Suffolk, however, a pilot project with 100 previous Surviving Winter grant recipients was conducted during the summer revealing that a slightly different approach could make a much larger and long-lasting difference.
Michael Attwood from Suffolk Community Foundation led the review with valuable support and insight from long term Appeal partners Nicky Willshire at Ipswich Citizen’s Advice and the team at Warmer Homes Healthy People.
Upon reviewing previous years data we could quickly see that many people were receiving support from the Surviving Winter Appeal year after year, a serious indicator of the ongoing challenges that continue in people’s lives. By reshaping the support that Surviving Winter delivers we will still be able to respond to the immediate need to heat people’s homes. However, at the same time we are now looking at ways to offer preventative support all year round to lift people out of poverty in a longer lasting and more sustainable way. The results from our initial pilot have shown significant additional benefits to those receiving support and we are confident that these benefits will make a meaningful difference to them not just this winter but in the months after too.
In addition to heating homes we are looking more at maximising personal income by checking benefit entitlement, pensions, reviewing home utilities and supporting cost reductions, as well as debt management and wider financial support. With energy switching yielding less in the way of savings currently, it’s proved absolutely vital to look at how we can help households reduce their costs in other ways and maximise their disposable income.
The team at Warm Homes Healthy People have been focusing on maximising the impact of home energy surveys. Reducing the amount of energy used through enhanced home energy efficiency and increasing the take-up of available energy efficiency grants, supply of insulation, draught proofing and helping with information and advice on how to maximise the value of storage heating are all making a difference. They are also helping Suffolk towards its goals to reduce the County’s Carbon Footprint.
Tim Holder says, ‘We really need the people of Suffolk to give generously to this year’s appeal. We are so grateful that private donors to Suffolk Community Foundation have come together and offered an incredible £100K match challenge to the people of Suffolk meaning that every pound members of the public give will be doubled up to this amount. This coming winter will yet again present exceptional challenges, with the annual cost of gas and electricity for an average household increasing from £817 per year to £1277, a 56% increase, and those off-grid using oil seeing prices rise by around the same amount. Considering this against the backdrop of economic uncertainty, lingering pandemic impacts and the colder weather conditions setting in and it is not hard to foresee exceptional need.’
Find out more about why the appeal is so important by watching the video below…
If you would like to receive individual support from the Surviving Winter Appeal, you can contact Citizen’s Advice on 01473 298634.
To support this The Surviving Winter Appeal, please donate online by clicking the button above, telephone 01473 602602 (during office hours), visit any branch of Suffolk Building Society to make a payment over the counter or fill in the coupon in today’s East Anglian Daily Times and send a cheque made payable to Suffolk Community Foundation to The Old Barns, Peninsula Business Centre, Wherstead, Ipswich, IP9 2BB.
For more information, please contact Tim Holder, Head of Public Affairs, Suffolk Community Foundation on [email protected] or 01473 602602.