As well as helping people with their problems, Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole seeks to improve policies and practice that affect people’s lives through research and campaigning. Citizens Advice research shows that for the people we see, we are able to solve 2 in every 3 problems. For those 1 in 3 problems we cannot solve, 76% of them are due to problems with ‘the system’. Campaigning helps us to address these problems.

Why Campaign?

We are in the unique and privileged position of seeing a wealth of client experiences. Our client base provides us with evidence of real issues impacting on people’s lives and we can use that evidence to give people a voice to raise issues with key decision makers and campaign for change.

We work with local and national Government, MPs, policymakers, regulators and service providers to outline the problems and what changes should be made.

How is it done?

The evidence is compiled anonymously from real client stories locally and then collated locally by Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole and nationally by Citizens Advice to identify recurring trends to build an evidence base that is then used to lobby for change.

It is difficult for policy and decision makers to ignore this evidence because it is based on real people and the problems they are facing because of poor practice and/or unfair decisions.

What difference does it make?

Through effective campaigning we can improve policies and practices and influence changes in legislation based on real facts. This can make a real difference to people’s lives, changing things for the better, not only for those coming to use Citizens Advice services, but for everyone.

Read about Citizens Advice National Campaigns:

Local Campaigns

Supporting Ethnically diverse Night Time Economy staff in Bournemouth

Support for International Students during Covid 19

So how successful are we?

Over the years we have campaigned on a range of different issues in order to improve the policies and services that affect our clients such as Employment and Support Allowance, Payday loans, Universal Credit, Bailiffs and Legal Aid reform.

How you can help make a difference?

By sharing your experiences with us

If we have helped make a difference to your life or if we have been unable to find a resolution to your problem because of unfair policies or rules, you can help us by sharing your story with us. We can then use this as evidence to ask people responsible for these problems to make changes. Telling us your story could also help someone else in a similar position. The more evidence we have the bigger impact we can have.

Please email admin@citizensadvicebcp.org.uk to tell us your story.

By Volunteering

Volunteer to join our Campaigns team. If you have experience or interest in any of the following, we would love to hear from you:

  • Researchers
  • Media trained
  • Social Studies Students
  • Lobbyists/campaigners
  • Interested in learning about campaigning