Help Close By is a charity that supports those impacted by poverty in the UK.
Help Close By was set up during the first lockdown in 2020 by co-founders Duncan Catterall-Mason and Penny Bamborough. The charity was set up to help coordinate poverty relief during lockdown.
In 2021, the Help Close By app was launched in Birmingham, influenced by conversations with community groups and non-profits. The aim was to help people facing poverty find local services more easily, and to reduce volunteers’ admin time.
Once furlough schemes ended, many volunteers returned to their day jobs. This meant that those unable to get to food banks were left without provision. As a result, Help Close By created a local food delivery service alongside the app to support service users.
In 2023, the monetisation of surplus supplies from supermarkets meant that surplus food used by our charity and many others declined. This triggered a refocus on Help Close By better aiding service users in finding access to the right support.
This brings us to where we are today.
Help Close By is a charity with a mission to use technology to fight poverty. It aims to achieve this by identifying people most at risk of poverty and supporting them with immediate and long-term solutions.
The UK’s poverty problem
Food bank usage shows us how poverty is growing in the UK. The Trussell Trust alone reported 1699 food banks in 2024, compared to only 34 in 2010. They issued 3.1 million emergency food parcels in 2024.
These figures are from just one organisation. They do not consider independent and unregistered food banks in the UK, or the number of people in poverty who do not access food banks at all. There is a poverty problem to be addressed.
Despite many food banks and advice services in the UK, we lack a joined-up solution. It can be difficult for service users to locate and access the help that they need. Help Close By has seen charities appear and disappear due to issues like funding, a lack of volunteers and leadership burnout.
Services like food banks offer excellent short-term support. But without long-term support, the people using them will struggle to exit poverty.
What can we do?
Help Close By wants to shift the narrative from providing short-term solutions. Instead, we must provide long-term solutions to empower people to exit poverty for good. On the 11th of June 2024, trustees voted for a strategic shift towards long-term needs, collecting data on poverty and expanding nationally.
With the Help Close By app, we have the opportunity to collect anonymous data to better support service users and see a broader view of the UK’s poverty problem. With this data, we can support effective, long-term solutions.
To reach our goals, we have split our roadmap into four phases.
PHASE 1:
Build the new app
We will update our service provider directory to remove inactive providers, identify user needs through data collection and improve the service user app experience.
Time scale: Summer 2024 - September 2025
PHASE 2:
National Rollout
We will roll out the app across priority areas of the UK, use data to support the most effective services and reintroduce direct services to the app in the next phase. After our first year we will publish anonymised real-time statists and mapping to drive public discussion and urgency for change.
Time scale: Autumn 2025 - Spring 2026
PHASE 3:
Small Grants
We will award small grants to our most effective direct services, direct users to long-term poverty solutions and use spot surveys to gather statistics on current issues.
Time scale: Spring 2026 - Spring 2030
PHASE 4:
Provide a
lasting impact
Help Close By will become a reliable public resource to support people experiencing poverty. In the long term, we will partner with major grants and obtain anchor institution status to fund organisations which identify early signs of poverty and resolve them before they escalate.
Time scale: From 2030 onwards
Volunteers
Help Close By is looking for all kinds of volunteers across the UK. In particular, we need talented individuals to support our tech, data, marketing and leadership teams.
There is a whole range of skills needed, so take a look at our volunteering opportunities to see how you can get involved.
Funders
Help Close By is passionate about supporting those living in poverty and preventing escalation in those at risk. Donations to Help Close By to support the national rollout are hugely appreciated.
Supported by grants from
Supported by corporate non-profit programmes from
Help Close By is a charity registered in England and Wales.
Registered Charity Number 1190642