WCF’s Winter of Wellbeing (WOW) Hubs project will provide a Warm Bank for Black, Asian and other ethnic minority women and families at our centre in Cardiff. This will provide a weekly place for women and their families to be warm and access our specialist fuel poverty advisor during each three-hour session, particularly in relation to support with fuel payments and energy tariffs. The Warm Hubs and seminars provide practical steps in providing inclusive and supportive sessions that will help the women manage their energy consumption effectively. The warm hub provides a warm and safe space with a healthy meal, bringing people together and combats loneliness and isolation.
The funding from Community Matters fund will enable us to provide the essential ‘cost of living’ support via warm hubs, free meals and help with energy costs to diverse communities living in Cardiff and surrounding areas between December 2024 and March 2025. The advice sessions will be provided for women, older women from diverse communities.
As part of the Winter of Wellbeing – Warm Hubs project awareness seminars will also be provided to check on the welfare of the women and their families in relation to fuel poverty and signpost them to other services as required. These seminars will be provided in partnership with other key local external stakeholders where required such as NEA and other energy providers. Fuel poverty, energy bills, tariff issues, arrears and cost of living crisis are ongoing issues facing minority ethnic communities all through the year and not just during winter months.
Continuity of services to support the communities are essential. We are a long-established service provider for ethnic minority women, and have already successfully delivered a similar service for the National Grid Community Matters fund during the last 2 years for winter months and successfully supported approximately 240 women with our Warm hubs and fuel poverty advice. Our team has extensive experience in providing Advice & Advocacy service and we have a well-established service provision catering to the needs of women & families who access our services from diverse backgrounds and areas of Cardiff and surrounding areas.
