About York CAB

York & District Citizens Advice Bureau

General Information

Aims & Principles of the CAB

York CAB Mission Statement

About York CAB

York CAB Social Policy

Access Toolkit

About the Citizens Advice Bureau

Aims and Principles

Aims of the Service

To ensure that individuals do not suffer through lack of knowledge of their rights and responsibilities or of the service available; or through an inability to express their needs effectively and, equally;

To exercise a responsible influence on the development of social policies and services, both locally and nationally.

Four Principles of the Service

The CAB advice service is -

Independent
Confidential
Impartial
Free

to all service users.

York CAB Mission Statement

"York and District CAB is working towards alleviating poverty, injustice and inequality, which exist within our local community. This is achieved through the development of an effective, accessible and quality service.

York and District CAB is committed to creating an environment that offers equality of opportunity and access to all its clients, staff and volunteers."

About York & District CAB

The Citizens Advice Bureau in York is FREE, CONFIDENTIAL and INDEPENDENT of any STATUTORY AGENCY.

York CAB offers a comprehensive advice and representation service which means that you can ask us any question about your situation or concerns and we will do our best to offer you the advice and support you need. If we can't help you we will find someone who can.

The Bureau also employs a range of specialists who are professionals in particular areas of welfare law. Should you need their support we will refer you to the appropriate person once you have been seen on our general advice service.

The general advice service is staffed by a team of professionally trained advisers who undertake to work free of charge. They regularly attend both regional and local training to ensure they are up-to-date with any changes in the law that could affect you.

All advisers use the information and technical resources we have in-Bureau so that the advice you are given is accurate, relevant and tailored to your needs.

York CAB is keen to provide a range of services to make sure that you can get advice promptly. These are as follows:

Open door sessions to allow access to advice immediately - especially for urgent cases.

Sessions offered at different places around the city - see below for details.

Telephone advice sessions for your convenience and for times when it is not possible to call in.

Appointments so you can see us at a time to suit you and to prevent the need to wait during the open door session.

Home visits for those people who cannot get out and about.

Letter and fax enquiry service.

Future services: we hope to introduce e-mail advice, however you can access the CAB's national information only web-site on http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/

Opening Times for Blossom St and Other Sessions

Social Policy Working Group

Terms of Reference

To inform and challenge key decision makers on social policy issues

To co-ordinate all aspects of Bureau social policy action

To log and identify trends in social policy forms

To consider issues for action locally

To contribute to regional social policy work initiated locally

To highlight the resource needs of social policy work to the Management Committee

To research topical issues and inform the organisation of the social policy dimensions

To promote social policy issues in the media

To work jointly with other organisations on social policy issues

To monitor progress in relation to the Citizens Advice Membership Scheme and its benchmarks for social policy work

To provide a focus for social policy debate and promote it as the twin aim of the Bureau

Access Toolkit

From November 2003 to June 2006, York CAB was funded by the Big Lottery Fund (formerly the National Lottery Community Fund) to run a Volunteer Access Project. The aims of this project were to make our volunteering opportunities more accessible to the following groups:

People from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities
People from lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) communities
People with physical disabilities
People with mental health problems

Our work also involved looking at ways in which we could make the services we deliver more accessible to these groups.

We wanted to be able to share our experiences gained from this project and offer suggestions and contacts for other organisations carrying out access and diversity work. To do this we compiled an ‘Access Toolkit’ which can be opened by clicking on the link below.

This 112 page document is aimed at organisations wanting to improve accessibility and diversity and provides a selection of tips, resources and contacts which we hope you will find useful.

Access Toolkit (PDF, 1893kb)

To read this document you will require Adobe Reader. If you don't have Adobe Reader it can be downloaded free at:
Adobe Reader

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