A new baby should mean sleepless nights and soft blankets, not a choice between heating the flat and feeding the family. For a growing number of parents across Morecambe and Lancaster, that choice has become all too real. Now, thanks to a £60,000 grant from West Lancashire Freemasons to Citizens Advice North Lancashire (CANL), more of those families will have somewhere to turn.
The funding, awarded through the Freemasons’ Charity, will strengthen CANL’s Early Years Project, which works with pregnant women and parents of children under four to give their families a more secure start in life. The project aims to reduce destitution and foodbank use, maximise household incomes, and help families build the confidence and skills to manage money in hard times. Behind the statistics is a simple hope: that easing the pressures of poverty in a child’s earliest years improves that child’s life chances and helps them avoid the kind of adverse experiences that can follow a person for decades. Every conversation is confidential, and no family is ever identified.
That work rests largely on the shoulders of one person: CANL’s dedicated Families Adviser, who sits down with parents, often at their most anxious moment, and helps them see a way through. Citizens Advice North Lancashire operates primarily in Morecambe, an area with some of the highest levels of deprivation in the region, carrying out patient, detailed casework to increase household incomes, reduce debt, and untangle the knots of benefits and housing that so often trap families in stress. The result, when it works, is quieter than a headline: a family that sleeps a little easier, and a household that feels a little more in control.
For West Lancashire Freemasons, the grant is a direct expression of the values members live by every day: Integrity, Friendship, Respect and Service. It is exactly this kind of practical, local support, funded entirely by Freemasons, their families and friends through the Freemasons’ Charity, that reflects the Province’s long-standing commitment to caring for people and helping those in need across the communities it serves, from the Manchester suburbs in the south to the Lake District in the north.
Karen Gilbertson, Advice Matters Team Lead at Citizens Advice North Lancashire, said: “We’re very grateful to West Lancashire Freemasons for their generous grant, which will allow us to reach out to more local families during this cost-of-living crisis, who might not otherwise access our services.”
Peter Schofield, Assistant Provincial Grand Master, West Lancashire Freemasons, said: “I’m very pleased we’ve been able to help Citizens Advice North Lancashire with their hugely important project, helping families with young children from one of the most deprived parts of our community. Helping families with budgeting and financial literacy is especially important in keeping them out of poverty.”
The grant was made possible through the Freemasons’ Charity, funded entirely by Freemasons, their families and friends across England and Wales. It is one of many ways members of West Lancashire Freemasons channel their time, fellowship and generosity into causes that make a real difference close to home, support that depends on nothing more than people choosing to look out for their neighbours.
To see the difference the grant will make, Peter Schofield, Assistant Provincial Grand Master, and Chris Larder, Lancaster Group Chairman, visited the CANL centre to meet Karen Gilbertson and members of her team Gemma Hollins, Joanne Young and Caroline Robertson, and hear at firsthand how the funding is being put to good use, enabling the charity to provide crucial support and change lives.
Citizens Advice North Lancashire is a local independent charity providing free, confidential and impartial advice to anyone, whoever you are and whatever your problem. With offices in both Lancaster and Morecambe, advisers help people with a wide range of issues, from debt, welfare benefits and the cost of living, to employment and housing. The charity also researches and campaigns where policies or practices are unfairly impacting on people. Find out more about Citizens Advice North Lancashire by clicking here.