In 1973 a public meeting was held at the Frome Town Council offices and it was agreed that every effort would be made to open a branch of the CAB charity.
Dawn Cunningham, who was on the original steering committee, oversaw the training of 25 new volunteers and on 16th Feb 1974 CAB opened its doors on the first floor above the pharmacy Norman Maggs on Bath Street.
Dawn saw the very first client that evening – a case of marital breakdown and debt. The premises may have changed, but some of the issues that affect people’s lives so profoundly remain the same.
In the late 1970’s the CAB moved to the charming St John’s Cottage next to the church and advice was given in those rooms until moving to the current offices in King Street in 2002.
In 2015 the ‘bureaux’ was dropped from national branding and Citizens Advice Mendip was established.
Iona FitzGerald, advice session supervisor at the Frome office said, “Volunteers have come and gone and dedicated many years giving excellent advice to anyone who walked through the door, but one adviser remained constant – Dawn carried on advising for 45 years until her retirement last year.
“Latterly she became a disability rights expert and dedicated her time to helping Frome residents with long term health conditions and fighting poor benefit decisions.
“Volunteers are the life-blood of our organisation, at the heart of Citizens Advice Mendip and all we do”.
In 2003 Dawn was awarded the National Citizens Advice lifetime achievement volunteer of the year award, presented by Princess Anne.
Mendip branch CEO Ian Byworth spoke to Frome Times about how the challenges of 2020 had impacted the branch. “It feels as if I’m stating the obvious when I say that 2020 has been a really tough year for our community and the organisations working within it,” he said.
“At Citizens Advice Mendip we’ve had our fair share of difficulty too and, like many organisations, this has resulted in some positive change to the way we deliver our services.
“Perhaps our most visible change, was being forced to close our King Street office door for face-to-face client services. This was a real blow, because our primary purpose is to ensure that people can access free, confidential and impartial advice whenever they need it.
“When restrictions on face-to-face services came in, we quickly shifted all our paid and volunteer advisers to our (freephone) Adviceline and email advice services. The success of this transition can be seen in the numbers – between April and November this year, we gave advice to 2,500 people on over 9,000 advice issues.”
Ian said another change they had seen was in the type of problems that people brought to them.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in employment issues (furloughing, redundancy, etc); similarly, more people seeking advice on Universal Credit claims and other benefits; and more clients are telling us that they’re struggling to pay their bills or need a referral to a food bank.
“As temporary suspensions on evictions, debt enforcement and mortgage payments end, we’ve seen a rise in the number of people coming to us with debt and eviction problems,” Ian said. “Although it’s important to consider the past and to work on the present, we also have to plan for the future. The evidence suggests that demand for our advice services will grow in the coming year – to meet this, we need to increase the number of trained advisers in our team and make it easier for all sections of the community to be able to access our advice services.
“One of the things we’ve learnt from the past eight months, is that telephone and email services have enabled us to help more people from more parts of the district than previously. Simply offering a face-to-face drop-in service at each of our five offices across the district won’t do any more. For example, by providing more ways to access our service we’re now seeing more people under 50 come to us for advice and similarly, more people who work during the day. “
Ian said a big part of their plan for the year ahead is to increase telephone and email advice capacity but also to introduce video consultations.
He added, “We’re always aware though, that some of our clients don’t have access to a phone or computer, or may simply struggle with technology. So, when the Covid restrictions come to an end, we’ll start offering face-to-face advice appointments again for those clients who need them.”
Anyone who knows someone who needs advice or support or who needs any themselves can contact Citizens Advice Mendip via the website: www.citizensadvicemendip.org.uk, or telephone Somerset Adviceline on 0808 27 87 842 which is free and open Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm.
CAB history
The country’s first 200 bureaux opened in 1939 with volunteers running the service from public buildings and private houses. Advisers dealt with problems relating to the loss of ration books, homelessness and evacuation. They also helped locate missing relatives and prisoners of war. Debt quickly became a key issue as income reduces due to World War II call-ups.
In 1942 the number of bureaux peaked at 1,074 and one even operated from a converted horse box parked near bombed areas.
In 2003 The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux changed its name to Citizens Advice and, in Wales, to Citizens Advice Cymru (Cyngor ar Bopeth Cymru).
