Our Work
A local charity helping people of all ages and backgrounds with the support of our amazing volunteers.
Our Work
Alongside our generalist advice service, we are funded to provide specialist advice and casework in areas such as debt, benefits and housing.
Community Engagement
Our community engagement team work in the heart of the community, working in partnerships to develop new services, improve access to information and create forums to share insight and feedback from our diverse communities.
Our Projects
Providing advice and support to newly arrived Chagossian residents.
Providing migrant communities in Crawley with Level 1 immigration, benefits advice and access to domestic abuse support. This project is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.
Empowering Communities: Free English Classes in Crawley
Through deep community engagement with the Chagossian Community over ten months, this NHS-funded CAWS project explored the impact of demographic changes and identified community needs as follows: empowerment as a core principle in healthcare delivery, increasing access to services, supporting self-advocacy, promoting prevention, and ultimately reducing health inequalities at a generational level.
Targeted support for Horsham residents who are struggling to meet essential living costs
Free confidential benefits advice to people affected by cancer, and their families and carers.
Building a strong, healthy community together
Empowering Communities: Free English Classes in Mid Sussex
Advice on debt problems, funded by Money & Pensions Service (MaPS).
Advice about money and housing for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
The aim of this CAWS project was to gain insights from Young People (16-25-year-olds) regarding their health needs and their experiences in accessing services. Engagement was via surveys, interviews and focus groups alongside informal insight gathering at events and in local community areas, with additional insights from professionals.
Citizens Advice in West Sussex (North, South, East) have partnered with Arun and Chichester Citizens Advice (Citizens Advice in West Sussex Partnership) to create the Poverty in West Sussex Report, providing an overview of poverty in West Sussex following research and insight gathering in partnership between the two West Sussex Citizens Advice.
Helping West Sussex residents transfer to the eVisa.
Advising clients on whether Universal Credit is the right benefit for them and helping them make their first claim.
News & Events
Citizens Advice in West Sussex is aiming to raise awareness about domestic abuse by taking part in this year’s UN-led 16 days of activism campaign. This year’s campaign, which runs from November 25th to December 10th, is aimed at ending digital abuse against women and girls.
Citizens Advice in West Sussex celebrated their 86th year of helping local residents at their Annual General Meeting in Crawley on November 6. With over 350 local volunteers working together for the community, their advice helped people access £26million of additional income people were missing out on, including fuel tariffs to reduce energy bills. Community members gave up over 33,000 hours and the charity provided 11,000 hours of training to community members across the year.
“Volunteering here makes me feel like I am doing something useful”. Citizens Advice in West Sussex is currently looking for receptionist volunteers at several of its offices.
Over the summer, there have been a rise in parking scams across the UK. People have reported having their card details secretly stolen by cark park machines that have been tampered with and receiving fake text messages from fraudsters about unpaid tickets asking for bank details. Read on to find out the best ways to keep yourself and your family protected from some of the most common tricks that parking fine scammers use.
When asked about the benefits of volunteering for CAWS, our colleagues have talked about how diverse, challenging and rewarding the roles are here. One volunteer shared that she gives up her time to work with our team because it gives her “satisfaction to know that she is doing something that is worthwhile for the local community.”