Latest News
July 2026
Projects round up
All our projects continue to run well and we would like to thank our amazing volunteers who make possible so much of what we do.
Karis BeFriends has supported over 178 people this year to date, with a range of connecting activities including home visits, one off activities such as trips to the Botanical Gardens, phone calls, newsletters and wellbeing packs and through our three group activities. These are Art Club (fortnightly), Senior Life Group (weekly) and Time for Tea (every other month). One really popular occasion was at Time for Tea, when one of our longstanding volunteers, who had joined Rock Choir after losing her husband suddenly, performed for the group. This went down really well! Another event was a trip to the CSBO 'Cuppa Concert' to which we took 14 participants by transport. This concert is particularly focused on older people and those with dementia and was very special for us; our participants included a gentleman who is registered blind and several with dementia and limited mobility. This month we have had visits from the council's Public Health team who wanted to hear from older people to help inform the city's Ageing Well Strategy, and from a representative of Ladywood Neighbourhood Network Scheme.
Men's Space continues to make a strong and measurable contribution to men's welllbeing with 80 men supported since January through 494 interactions. 17 of these were new referrals, each of whom has received timely personal follow-up. Engagement is increasing with both our group activities and our one-to-one outreach work, particularly with our Walking Group and Table Tennis Club, both of which consistently help to reduce isolation, improve mood and build social confidence. Participation in our event nights has increased over the past few months with our last event in June (a 1980s themed murder mystery evening) welcoming 28 attendees. Many participants now attend these regularly, and report improved social connection, reduced loneliness and greater confidence in engaging with others. The project is working well with partner organisations including St John's and St Peter's Church, Ladywood Leisure Centre and Balsall Heath Community Church. The Birmingham Botanical Gardens have also been very accommodating, allowing free entry for our weekly walking group. This support has been invaluable and much appreciated, particularly since our numbers in this group have doubled over recent months!
Children and Families Work has seen a few changes over the summer, including to staffing, but also to our offer with the pausing of the baby bank club. The club has supported many families over the past two years but with changes to the two-child benefit cap we are now reviewing the need for the service. The drop-in group continued to see an increase in numbers over the past few months with many participants commenting that it is beneficial for their mental health and wellbeing, with the opportunity to connect to other people who speak their language being a particular highlight. Our English classes continue to be well attended with the introduction of the new, more advanced class, which is gaining a lot of interest. Baby Bank currently has a very short waiting list and we are meeting all referrals. A big change for us locally is the imminent closure of the hotels that house asylum seekers and refugees; this has meant that some of the clients we have been working with for years have been relocated, sometimes hundreds of miles away. We have continued to support those individuals through identifying support and opportunities for connection in their new communities. This change to local accommodation will have a significant impact on our work as many of our referrals came from these communities. We are currently exploring ways to improve our befriending offer which in recent times has become more transactional with requests for specific items like travel passes rather than for long-term befriending support.
Karis BeFriends Advice continues to be in high demand, with the increasingly strict parameters around the awards of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) causing problems for claimants. We have had several successful awards of PIP and Attendance Allowance, often following court tribunals. Many applicants now have to go through a lengthy process of application, mandatory reconsideration, appeal and court, which can take over a year. Our support is really important for people who are often struggling with several challenges already and for whom these lengthy processes can be extremely stressful. A client who had lost his PIP award had unsuccessfully tried to get it reinstated, after visiting several organisations who were unable to help him. We worked with him to request a mandatory reconsideration for Attendance Award, which was awarded. This also had a positive impact on his pension credits (which had been lost) with them being reinstated and backdated payments made. Another client, aged 75, asked for help filling in a Health Costs form. During our meeting, it became clear she was entitled to some other support including Attendance Allowance and a Blue Badge. We applied for both and these were granted - she said 'your help has made loads of difference ... I didn't think I was entitled and I am so grateful for these additional benefits.'
Ladywood Community Advice has seen an increase in council tax and Universal Credit (UC) enquiries. This is most likely to be a result of the start of the tax year and the migration of people from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to UC, where previous years' awards are not being reflected in their new council tax bills. There are huge challenges around sorting these out with telephone calls to the council's benefits or tax teams taking 45 to 60 minutes to get through, which means appointments (hour long slots) are often overrunning and then starting late. These are the sorts of situations that are difficult for clients to manage, who often have limited phone credit, and making calls like this on behalf of clients are a large part of the support we provide. The removal of the two-child limit for UC has had an anticipated downside for some claimants, as they have now been brought under the benefit cap. This means the policy that was designed to move more families out of poverty isn't working for the poorest families, who are now finding they are worse off as they receive less UC. We are attempting to collate details from those affected to make representation to our local MP.
Social Prescribing Our Social Prescribing Link Worker, who works between us and three local GP practices, continues to be oversubscribed. The impact of this role is manifold; helping to deliver peer support groups for those with long term chronic health conditions; assisting with housing enquiries including advocacy to MPs and the council and helping with housing applications; contacting social services about home adaptations and care assessments; helping with travel passes and applications; reducing isolation through work with Karis BeFriends, Men's Space and Age Concern; supporting people for more healthy lifestyles, working with Nuffield Health and Be Active Plus for their free programmes; supporting pain management patients; and providing help around benefits and financial support. It's a very varied role that supports the non-medical aspects of patient wellbeing in partnership with health professionals and is very much needed. The benefits are immense but the demand is high meaning waiting lists are between 4-12 weeks. We are hopeful of some additional staff resource for this project to help manage demand.
Funding We are grateful to have received support from the Harry Payne Fund this month, which will help to cover the running costs of Karis BeFriends. It is the 4th time they have supported this work over the past five years and we are truly grateful for their ongoing commitment.
Projects round up
All our projects continue to run well and we would like to thank our amazing volunteers who make possible so much of what we do.
Karis BeFriends has supported over 178 people this year to date, with a range of connecting activities including home visits, one off activities such as trips to the Botanical Gardens, phone calls, newsletters and wellbeing packs and through our three group activities. These are Art Club (fortnightly), Senior Life Group (weekly) and Time for Tea (every other month). One really popular occasion was at Time for Tea, when one of our longstanding volunteers, who had joined Rock Choir after losing her husband suddenly, performed for the group. This went down really well! Another event was a trip to the CSBO 'Cuppa Concert' to which we took 14 participants by transport. This concert is particularly focused on older people and those with dementia and was very special for us; our participants included a gentleman who is registered blind and several with dementia and limited mobility. This month we have had visits from the council's Public Health team who wanted to hear from older people to help inform the city's Ageing Well Strategy, and from a representative of Ladywood Neighbourhood Network Scheme.
Men's Space continues to make a strong and measurable contribution to men's welllbeing with 80 men supported since January through 494 interactions. 17 of these were new referrals, each of whom has received timely personal follow-up. Engagement is increasing with both our group activities and our one-to-one outreach work, particularly with our Walking Group and Table Tennis Club, both of which consistently help to reduce isolation, improve mood and build social confidence. Participation in our event nights has increased over the past few months with our last event in June (a 1980s themed murder mystery evening) welcoming 28 attendees. Many participants now attend these regularly, and report improved social connection, reduced loneliness and greater confidence in engaging with others. The project is working well with partner organisations including St John's and St Peter's Church, Ladywood Leisure Centre and Balsall Heath Community Church. The Birmingham Botanical Gardens have also been very accommodating, allowing free entry for our weekly walking group. This support has been invaluable and much appreciated, particularly since our numbers in this group have doubled over recent months!
Children and Families Work has seen a few changes over the summer, including to staffing, but also to our offer with the pausing of the baby bank club. The club has supported many families over the past two years but with changes to the two-child benefit cap we are now reviewing the need for the service. The drop-in group continued to see an increase in numbers over the past few months with many participants commenting that it is beneficial for their mental health and wellbeing, with the opportunity to connect to other people who speak their language being a particular highlight. Our English classes continue to be well attended with the introduction of the new, more advanced class, which is gaining a lot of interest. Baby Bank currently has a very short waiting list and we are meeting all referrals. A big change for us locally is the imminent closure of the hotels that house asylum seekers and refugees; this has meant that some of the clients we have been working with for years have been relocated, sometimes hundreds of miles away. We have continued to support those individuals through identifying support and opportunities for connection in their new communities. This change to local accommodation will have a significant impact on our work as many of our referrals came from these communities. We are currently exploring ways to improve our befriending offer which in recent times has become more transactional with requests for specific items like travel passes rather than for long-term befriending support.
Karis BeFriends Advice continues to be in high demand, with the increasingly strict parameters around the awards of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) causing problems for claimants. We have had several successful awards of PIP and Attendance Allowance, often following court tribunals. Many applicants now have to go through a lengthy process of application, mandatory reconsideration, appeal and court, which can take over a year. Our support is really important for people who are often struggling with several challenges already and for whom these lengthy processes can be extremely stressful. A client who had lost his PIP award had unsuccessfully tried to get it reinstated, after visiting several organisations who were unable to help him. We worked with him to request a mandatory reconsideration for Attendance Award, which was awarded. This also had a positive impact on his pension credits (which had been lost) with them being reinstated and backdated payments made. Another client, aged 75, asked for help filling in a Health Costs form. During our meeting, it became clear she was entitled to some other support including Attendance Allowance and a Blue Badge. We applied for both and these were granted - she said 'your help has made loads of difference ... I didn't think I was entitled and I am so grateful for these additional benefits.'
Ladywood Community Advice has seen an increase in council tax and Universal Credit (UC) enquiries. This is most likely to be a result of the start of the tax year and the migration of people from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to UC, where previous years' awards are not being reflected in their new council tax bills. There are huge challenges around sorting these out with telephone calls to the council's benefits or tax teams taking 45 to 60 minutes to get through, which means appointments (hour long slots) are often overrunning and then starting late. These are the sorts of situations that are difficult for clients to manage, who often have limited phone credit, and making calls like this on behalf of clients are a large part of the support we provide. The removal of the two-child limit for UC has had an anticipated downside for some claimants, as they have now been brought under the benefit cap. This means the policy that was designed to move more families out of poverty isn't working for the poorest families, who are now finding they are worse off as they receive less UC. We are attempting to collate details from those affected to make representation to our local MP.
Social Prescribing Our Social Prescribing Link Worker, who works between us and three local GP practices, continues to be oversubscribed. The impact of this role is manifold; helping to deliver peer support groups for those with long term chronic health conditions; assisting with housing enquiries including advocacy to MPs and the council and helping with housing applications; contacting social services about home adaptations and care assessments; helping with travel passes and applications; reducing isolation through work with Karis BeFriends, Men's Space and Age Concern; supporting people for more healthy lifestyles, working with Nuffield Health and Be Active Plus for their free programmes; supporting pain management patients; and providing help around benefits and financial support. It's a very varied role that supports the non-medical aspects of patient wellbeing in partnership with health professionals and is very much needed. The benefits are immense but the demand is high meaning waiting lists are between 4-12 weeks. We are hopeful of some additional staff resource for this project to help manage demand.
Funding We are grateful to have received support from the Harry Payne Fund this month, which will help to cover the running costs of Karis BeFriends. It is the 4th time they have supported this work over the past five years and we are truly grateful for their ongoing commitment.