CAHN’s Advocacy Support Service aims to improve the lives of Caribbean and African children, young people, and their families. It is a confidential and safe service that provides culturally sensitive and racially tailored support for vulnerable Caribbean & African families who disproportionately face a range of complex issues and challenges.
Our aim in raising funds in this campaign is to enable us to increase the capacity of our case workers, so that we are able to support more people in a timely manner. We support clients with both complex and non-complex issues, which could be 10 sessions or more. Supporting a client with a non-complex issue cost around £75 per hour.
Our clients get:
- One-to-one support sessions (face-to-face or online)
- Language support for those who do not have English as their first language.
- Support with written communication to external organisations and service providers (e.g., Housing, Local Authority, Police, etc.)
- Accompanied to meetings with agencies (e.g. social workers, social landlords, opticians, job centre, employers, etc.)
- Guidance and support in navigating mainstream and public systems (e.g immigration processes)
A client’s testimonial
“I was being abused by my now ex-husband who threatened to take my baby girl back to Nigeria. He beat me up and I was pregnant. I ended up in a women’s refuge and I was there until my baby was born. I could not get access to my 2-year-old baby girl because of my husband who also threatened me because my stay in England was dependant on his visa. CAHN intervened and now I have my baby back and I am with my 2 children. I am so grateful to CAHN who also helped me with my mental health and in court with my immigration papers".
The range of cases and support we provide include:
- Family support with social services
- Housing & housing adaptations
- Disability welfare benefits
- Social care packages
- Legal/immigration support
Currently, there is a high demand on the service, hence an extended waiting list as we are oversubscribed. This demand exceeds our capacity to respond to new cases promptly. Between January to September 2023, we received 147 new referrals to the service; pointing to its essentiality . We require more case workers to deliver our interventions and support the vulnerable clients.
About CAHN
CAHN’s vision is to eradicate health inequalities and wider disparities for Caribbean & African people within a generation.
Our mission is to ensure that the strategic and operational actions of service providers across health and cross sector agencies and commissioners, lead to racial and social justice for Black people.
We are committed to working in an inclusive, creative, and responsive manner with communities and organisations irrespective of socio-economic status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, and physical or mental ability. Our work is conducted within a framework of respect, integrity, openness, transparency, and accountability.
CAHN’s culturally appropriate service model ensures that all interaction, care, and support are addressed sensitively. It is designed specifically to engage the service users who do not feel they have a voice or find it difficult to assert their needs and views. We work in partnership with a range of agencies to provide the holistic support package you need to help people to get back on track and live the life that can bring about better health and wellbeing.