Press release - Cambridge CAB
23 March 2011
Advice at the touch of a screen for Cambridge City Residents
L-R Dr David Livesey, Board member Cambridge
Citizens Advice Bureau; Tim Bick, Executive Councillor Community
Development, Cambridge City Council; Alan Soer, Arbury Community Centre
Manager
Help with debt, legal and consumer advice is just a fingertip away in Arbury after Cambridge City Council and Cambridgeshire’s Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABs) unveiled a new Advicehub kiosk at the Arbury Community Centre yesterday.
The new Advicehub facility, one of a series of eight to be funded by City Council, is a self-help touch-screen kiosk and will provide generalist advice on issues such as debt management and consumer affairs. These kiosks provide a cost effective, locally based solution for people in their communities and are intended to help a large number of people find answers to their problems without having to travel across the city to the CAB office. Even if they cannot find the answer through the simple 3 step touch screen process they can then email their enquiry and the CAB will then get in contact with them either by email or if they do not have an email address, then by phone.
Tim Bick, Executive Councillor Community Development for the City Council, said, “These are tough times for many people. Although an organisation like the City Council cannot change that situation, we can help to build an ability to cope within the community and I am proud that we are doing that. A key part of this is access to the kind of information that enables people to assert their rights, such as about employment or benefits. These kiosks, to be located in the heart of different neighbourhoods like this one in Arbury Community Centre and its sister at East Barnwell Health Centre, are a means of bringing information closer to people and represent a significant expansion of the help available.”
The kiosk is part of a digital network of kiosks being installed by Advicehub at various community locations across the county, with support not only from City Council, but also the Investing in Communities fund at EEDA (the East of England Development Agency), South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Growth Fund. Eventually people needing face-to-face advice will be able to have interviews with specialist advisers using webcam or Skype phone, guided by trained webcam assistants.
Nigel Brown OBE, High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Chairman of Cambridge CAB, echoed the Councilllor’s sentiments, “Using technology to deliver more advice services at a time when increasing numbers of people need support with issues such as debt, benefits and housing, means earlier intervention with problems, preventing them from becoming worse and thereby minimising the social, financial and health impact on our communities.”