A mixture of charities offering crucial support to people-in-need in the Exeter area have collaborated in a bid to rise up against the affects of widespread budget cuts and provide an even better service.
Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau, Age UK Exeter, Community Housing Aid, Homemaker Southwest, Shelter and Young Devon have teamed up to form the Advice Exeter partnership – a free advice and information service.
Charity officials said that as austerity measures and funding cuts are leaving more people in need of help, while reducing the resources available to advice charities such as those in Advice Exeter, the need for new ways of working together is "greater than ever".
The venture, which has been supported by a grant from the Big Lottery's Advice Services Transition Fund, has been developed to improve the way the organisations work and to ensure that there is 'no wrong door' when it comes to helping their clients.
The aims of Advice Exeter are:•To improve access to advice services, by means of a new online enquiry portal,•To empower people to solve their problems through increased awareness and new resources,•To use the evidence of the charity's clients to campaign for improvement to the policies that affect people's lives.
Following intensive planning and preparation, Advice Exeter will be unveiled at an invite only launch event on Wednesday, March 12.
Representatives from Devon County Council, Exeter City Council and other non-profit sector organisations, are set to attend.
Iain Large, Advice Exeter partnership development officer, said: "Over the past six months we have been looking at ways of improving the service we offer to our clients by working in collaboration.
"The launch is our chance to tell people about the plans we have and how we intend to deliver them across the city.
"There is a growing need for advice organisations to work collaboratively and innovatively to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
"The launch will also give us a chance to discuss the potential benefits of sustained and committed partnership working in the changing funding landscape."
The event, which will be held in the ballroom of Exeter Community Centre, will include a presentation from a successful partnership in Bristol and a leading authority on collaborative working.
The partnership will celebrate a full public launch in Exeter in the summer.
For more information visit, www.adviceexeter.org.uk, or follow, @AdviceExeter on Twitter.
