On Thursday 9 February, staff and volunteers from four Liverpool CAB offices attended a celebration tea, hosted by HRH the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, for their role giving money management training as part of the national project, MoneyActive.
Princess Anne, who has been Patron of the Citizens Advice service since 1990, thanked the volunteers for their enormous contribution to the MoneyActive project, CAB clients and their communities. Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, also gave a speech at the event, recognising the role of volunteers in extending the services on offer to clients and the local community. Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert, who is currently campaigning to increase the provision of financial education in schools, also spoke at the event and congratulated the volunteers.
The afternoon tea, held at the Chartered Insurance Institute in the heart of the City of London, celebrated the contribution made by over 1,600 project volunteers across the country over the last three years. Funded by Nationwide Building Society, MoneyActive has trained and recruited volunteers to deliver money management sessions to local residents and those who work with them.
Joe Lavelle, Financial Skills Development Worker at North Liverpool CAB said: “CAB offices in North Liverpool, Speke, Toxteth and Liverpool Central rely on volunteers, but this project has been a great addition to the roles we can offer. Volunteers working solely to deliver training to people and organisations across the community and improve their financial capability has been great.
“All our volunteers deserve a medal for their work and the difference they’ve made to those they’ve trained and the community.”
The Liverpool MoneyActive Project is amongst the largest and most successful in the UK. Liverpool volunteers have delivered over 220 training sessions to more than 1700 clients and workers in 80 different organisations. In addition, they provided 1140 one-to-one financial capability sessions, helping people budget, understand credit options, deal with debt and make better decisions about their finances. Liverpool CAB volunteers had previously delivered a training session to Members of Parliament.
For more information, contact Joe Lavelle, Financial Skills Development Work, North Liverpool CAB, on 0151 207 6974 ext 2008 or e-mail joe.l@northliverpoolcab.org.uk.