West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice Bureau (WOCAB) is a local charity which carries out a vital role in providing free financial, benefit and debt advice to local people. You may know that we have offices in Witney and Chipping Norton. What you may not know is that:
- we have a Rural Advice Project which provides a home visiting service for older people, people in isolation, carers and people who, either due to a disability or for other reasons aren’t able to get into the big towns in the district
- last year alone we helped more than 1,600 local people with housing-related enquiries; dealt with more than 17,000 individual enquiries; and carried out more than 20,000 actions for clients to resolve their financial, legal and practical issues last year
- we train volunteers to provide these advice and support services across the district
- we don’t charge a penny for our work.
Last year we helped local people in need realise more than £1m additional income – money which gets ploughed back into the local economy. So our work doesn’t just help individuals, there’s a business benefit as well. But in the current financial climate much of what we do is at risk.
West Oxfordshire District Council, which has been our main benefactor for several years, has had to cut its budget to us and has made it clear that we must find other sources of funding. So we have launched a Friends scheme in an attempt to maintain our vital services – which is where you can help.
By becoming a Friend of WOCAB you can support us to help people in our area reduce their worries and get their lives back on track. Your gift will help us keep on doing this – for example, while it costs more than £1,000 to train a new volunteer advisor, even a gift of £25 will help us to visit a housebound client, or represent someone in court.
If you want to become a Friend of WOCAB you can contact the Bureau by emailing bureau@wocab.org.uk, downloading our Friends of WOCAB brochure from www.caox.org.uk, calling us on 08444 111 444,or by popping into our local offices in Witney or Chipping Norton.
West Oxfordshire CAB is a registered charity, number 1092539, and is entirely self-supporting. Our offices are at:
The Old Print House, Marlborough Lane, Witney, OX28 6DY
31 High Street, Chipping Norton, OX7 5AD.