Help Close By

Help Close By is a UK charity that uses technology to connect people facing poverty to food, advice and support they need

Help Close By is a UK charity that uses technology to connect people facing poverty to food, advice and support they need

Help Close By is a UK charity that uses technology to connect people facing poverty to the support they need

We look at real data combined with a community model to find people in poverty that would otherwise be missed.

In 2026, we launched our Change Programme in Birmingham which aims to address deeper issues, and allows us to offer long-term poverty support to the people that need it most.

We are currently rebuilding the Help Close By app to make it more accessible and focus on long-term needs. We also have plans to expand nationally, but we need your help to get there.

If you would like to get involved, click the volunteer button below.

We use a hybrid model that takes in the best available data on poverty processed through the best available technology, alongside community connections to identify people facing poverty in a way allows us to understand problems at the macro and individual level simultaneously. We look for gaps in processes and services to understand where we can support.

Through our going network of charities and some of our own, we seek to support people with their immediate needs using a model that allows organisations to share the tasks rather than duplicate efforts, allowing more people to be helped than would otherwise be possible.

When people in poverty first reach out for support, often it's for food, but food is just the wedge into other issues that are underlying their needs. Understanding those problems is often the way to make real change and help people out of poverty, often by connecting people with services that can address sometimes complex individual needs.