VITAL outreach work to help young mums, prisoners, and people suffering illness through poverty is today set to carry on – thanks to a lottery grant.Felixstowe and District Citizens' Advice Bureau has been awarded £36,100 by the Big Lottery Fund to help run its services and pay for two outreach workers.

VITAL outreach work to help young mums, prisoners, and people suffering illness through poverty is today set to carry on - thanks to a lottery grant.

Felixstowe and District Citizens' Advice Bureau has been awarded £36,100 by the Big Lottery Fund to help run its services and pay for two outreach workers.

The grant is one of 13 announced today for projects and good causes in the region, totalling £780,198.

Felixstowe CAB manager Barbara Rose said: "We are absolutely delighted.

"We've been on tenterhooks waiting to see if would be successful. Without the award we would struggle to keep going.

"We can continue to help people in our area where we provide services at two doctors' surgeries, a drop-in for young mums, and at Hollesley Bay prison.

"We have referrals from doctors and have helped disabled people access allowances by assisting to complete the disability forms that can be complicated."

Over the past few years the CAB, a charity based in Orwell Road, has dealt with increasing numbers of inquiries and extended its services.

In its annual report last year, it said it had dealt with 12,062 inquiries from 8,040 people in the Felixstowe area in the past 12 months, giving advice on a range of issues, including money and debts, employment, housing, legal matters, benefits, tax and consumer problems.

One of its most successful new ventures has been the outreach service run at Walton surgery, Walton High Street, and the Haven Health Centre in Grange Farm Avenue, open to not just patients but any member of the public.

The aim was twinfold - to take the service out of the town centre to reach people with transport and mobility problems, and also because there was growing evidence of a connection between health, poverty and other issues.

A newer venture has been a drop-in for young mums at the Level Two youth project above Tesco, Hamilton Road, to give advice on many issues.

The twice-monthly outreach at Hollesley Bay has run since 1990 and has resulted in some very challenging and lengthy casework inquiries, particularly connected with debt.

The Big Lottery Fund said the £36,100 grant would pay the salary of two outreach workers for three years, travel and running costs, and overheads.

Lottery eastern regional manager Lynn Morgan said: "With this funding these organisations can continue to make a big difference to their communities and have a positive impact on so many people's quality of life."

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