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A new initiative which supports and helps people who are in financial difficulties and heavily in debt is launching in Jersey.
CHRISTIANS AGAINST POVERTY (CAP) is already well established in the UK, where for many years it’s operated through local churches.
CAP offers courses designed to help people who find themselves in financial difficulties, run by local volunteers who have been trained as “CAP Money Coaches”. Out of this has grown a network of “Debt Centres” which help people on a one-to-one basis in whatever situation they find themselves.
A recent States of Jersey Survey highlighted that there is significant pressure on household budgets with a larger percentage of the population now being caught up with rising debts. CAP Jersey aims to support people, to help them budget their income and expenditure, to ensure debt is reduced and to enable households to live without the burden of debt.
It was in 2010 that the Rev Martyn Shea, Vicar of St Mark’s Church in Jersey, and Malcolm Lewis, a local business man and Chartered Accountant, along with one or two others were trained as CAP Money Coaches. They’ve operated the CAP Money Course on a limited basis in the island since then.
In 2017 Malcolm Lewis and a small team decided to raise the profile of CAP in Jersey and, with the full support of Senior Executives at CAP UK have set up a local a company with charitable status called CHRISTIANS AGAINST POVERTY (JERSEY) LIMITED (CAP Jersey).
CAP UK have supported this initiative and in October 2017 held a training day in Jersey to train more CAP Money Coaches.
“The support for this initiative has been stunning, with the island now having 30 Money Coaches fully trained to run courses in the island. There are seven local churches who have signed up to become members of this local charity and trained money coaches come from twelve different churches around the island,” said Malcolm Lewis.
Mr Lewis says CAP Jersey will enhance already existing help for those people finding it hard to make ends meet.
“CAP Jersey fits well alongside the valuable work that Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Community Savings and other locally based support groups currently offer. Very positive discussions have taken place with both organisations to ensure that CAP Jersey complements and works with and alongside them,” Mr Lewis said.
CAP Jersey also aims to extend its offering in the island in the future to include Life skills courses, and other initiatives offered by CAP UK.
