Ex-volunteers! Come to celebrate 50 years of Citizens Advice Ipswich
Citizens Advice Ipswich is putting a call out to former volunteers and staff to invite them to celebrate their 50th Anniversary on Thursday 28 November at Ipswich Town Hall.
The charity is holding its Annual General Meeting and really hopes that people who were involved along the way will come along to help commemorate this milestone.
Chief Officer Nicky Willshere said: “It would be the icing on the cake if we could welcome former volunteers, staff and trustees to our party to look back over the past 50 years, as well as celebrate the fact that we are still going strong and helping so many people in the Ipswich area.
“Lots of things have changed since we started, but Citizens Advice has never been needed more – access to trustworthy advice delivered by compassionate people is as necessary now as ever.. We remain, as they say, ‘the people’s champions’ and will be raising a glass to everyone who has played a part in our work.”
Ipswich and District Citizens Advice was set up by a steering group led by Councillor P. Kobbel and it opened its doors at Tower Street on 1 July 1974.
In the first 6 months (before it was advertised or the telephone number had been added to the phone directory) 3100 problems were dealt with and over 500 letters sent out.
A publicity campaign started in January 1975 with the slogan “Don’t worry alone” on posters on the sides of Corporation Public Transport buses in the town, articles in the local press and a short interview on BBC Radio 4.
At a time of a national economic crisis with threatened inflation rises and in the run up to a general election, people came with a broad range of problems:
The new volunteer advisers quickly realised that added to confidentiality, impartiality and accuracy, another necessary ingredient was flexibility.
One session could produce problems ranging from:
• the name of the secretary of the local rowing club
• advising a distressed mother on how to deal with a pregnant school child,
• the address of the Bishop,
• problems relating to tribunals, redundancy,
• loneliness
• Income Tax
• where to go for a merchant seaman’s ticket,
• where to hire a beach hut
• how to bring a daughter’s ashes back from America
In the following nine months the enquiries doubled, with over 6000 issues brought to the offices.
To put this into context, in 2023-24, Citizens Advice Ipswich helped just under 10,000 clients with over 38,000 issues. The advice given in this year led to £1.4 million debts being written off and over £2.5 million income gained for the clients across the Ipswich area.
The AGM is from 14.00 to 16.00 on Thursday 28 November at Ipswich Town Hall.
Anyone wishing to come along can email admin@ipswichcab.org.uk to book a place.