Community's citizens advice bureau sets fundraising target of £450k

Celebrating 12 years of assisting the community, Paperweight launches its 36-hour fundraiser this Sunday 21st May

A charity that provides practical guidance and support to those in crisis in the Jewish community launches its 36-hour fundraising campaign this weekend.

The Paperweight Trust is looking to raise £450k across the 21st and 22nd May to continue supporting clients with multiple and complex issues, including general bureaucracy, debt and finance, welfare and benefits, wills and probate, divorce and the fall-out from physical and mental health, abuse and old age.

Benjamin Conway, Chair, Paperweight Trust, said: “We’ve helped the 35-year-old with six figure debts; the homeless mother with two children; the elderly couple with no food or heating; taken the phone call saying that suicide is the only way out; heard about the local authority refusing welfare benefits assistance and listened to the legal, financial and advocacy questions. We’ve supported them and the 1300 other clients who have knocked at our door in the past year, all of them are part of our wonderful community and they deserve and need every ounce of our help and support in their time of crisis.”

Bayla Perrin, CEO, Paperweight Trust, says: “We are only now just beginning to see the economic havoc wreaked by the pandemic and how it has impacted on people’s long-term health, finances, jobs and much more.The Jewish community may only be a tiny proportion of the UK society but be absolutely sure that whatever happens in the wider world happens on our own doorsteps.”

Paperweight has caseworkers in London, Manchester and Gateshead, able to offer advice.