News

North Bristol Advice Centre (NBAC) has been awarded core funding of £300,000 over 3 years from The National Lottery Community Fund to develop their outreach work in North Bristol.  

The “Embedding Advice in Communities” project will allow NBAC to partner with local organisations to embed advice within communities and reach people with welfare benefit issues at the earliest possible stage. 

“We are delighted to receive this award,” says Katherine Tanko, Director of NBAC. “Demand for our services has never been higher, and this funding will help us to safeguard and develop our community-based advice services. Huge thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund for supporting our advice work in communities, and to National Lottery players.” 

The project is based on a pilot with Kingsmeadow@Made4Ever in South Gloucestershire, where NBAC’s welfare benefits adviser worked alongside  staff and volunteers to provide early-intervention and wrap-around advice support. The evaluation showed it helped to reach the most vulnerable -those who might not otherwise access advice support- and resolved advice issues before problems developed or escalated.  

One of the aims of the project is to gain greater insight into the value of embedding advice in communities, and to share this learning with advice partners locally and nationally.  

NBAC is a community-based advice agency, providing free and independent welfare benefits and debt advice in North Bristol and South Gloucestershire, and digital inclusion services. Last year we supported 2114 people, brought in almost £2 million in income for local people, and helped to manage almost £4 million in debt.   

The National Lottery Community Fund are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK, distributing money raised by National Lottery players for good causes. In 2023/24, The National Lottery Community Fund awarded £686.3 million of life-changing funding to 3,700 projects in communities across the UK. To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk