About
Navigate…Our Vision
To eliminate social isolation and financial hardship.
Navigate…Our Mission
To equip individuals and communities with the knowledge, skills and capabilities to overcome social isolation and financial hardship through high-quality, accessible advice services.
Navigate is a new Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), registered on the 13th February 2019 Charity number 1182020. The work of Navigate was founded in 2011 as a natural development of the work of Wessex Resolutions CIC.
Navigate is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (837950) for debt-related regulated activities. A member of AdviceUK. Most of our specialist advisers are members of the Institute of Money Advisers.
Navigate’s work benefits those individuals and families facing financial hardship and exclusion by reason of youth, age, ill health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage in Somerset and Devon.
Meet The Navigate Team
Navigate…Our Objectives:
1) Equip individuals and communities with the knowledge, skills and capabilities to prevent financial hardship.
2) Educate individuals and communities in financial literacy and capability, building skills, knowledge and confidence to manage money effectively.
3) Empower individuals and communities to tackle social isolation through community development activities.
4) Provide innovative, high-quality, accessible, responsive services which build and share learning to inform practice, encourage greater sector investment and to facilitate effective integrated working.
Our work is split across 3 areas:
Prevention
Navigate offers a comprehensive money and debt advice service. Our client’s needs are at the heart of our service. Every person is an individual, with their own set of circumstances. We understand this so we tailor our approach and deliver a service that suits our clients. We want our clients to feel empowered and we deliver our service in a style that clients can relate to and engage with.
Our specialist advisers offer a wide range of 1:1 advice and support to individuals to help prevent financial hardship. We deliver our advice mainly face-to-face, visiting our clients in their own homes. Appointments can also be made at outreach locations across our project areas.
Financial hardship can affect anyone at anytime. We can help people who are:
- finding it difficult to pay their heating bills
- struggling with debt
- borrowing money for essential spending
- worrying about their monthly repayments
- wanting to prepare a flexible, realistic, budget
- being made ill by money worries
- coping with changes to their welfare benefits
- facing financial difficulty and need help
To find out more about our preventative money and debt advice services please click here.
Education
Free, fun and interactive workshops delivered through a series of games.
Navigate has developed a highly interactive educational workshop called “Navigating the Money Maze”. Participants are helped to ‘navigate’ their way through the money maze by using money-saving tips, and useful information. This helps participants to manage their money more effectively and build some financial resilience for when things go wrong.
During the Navigate the Money Maze courses we:
- Talk about money – budgeting, borrowing, banking, income, debt
- Provide tips on how to make the most of your money
- Talk about financial jargon and what it actually means
Courses are run throughout Devon and Somerset and are open to individuals, groups, clubs, carers, family members or anyone who finds it difficult to manage their money.
To find out more about our educational courses, please click here.
Community Development
Navigate work with a wide range of statutory and voluntary sector organisations. We believe strongly that partnership-working adds depth and value to the activities and communities we work within. We want people to benefit from better financial resilience and reduce the stress and anxiety caused by social isolation. Engaging in social activity improves the well-being of the individual and wider community.
Navigate has a formal partnership with Encompass Southwest known as “Wiser£money”. The partnership was formed in 2012 and currently delivers a number of Financial Inclusion services across Devon and operates under a formal partnership agreement.
Encompass Southwest is a community-based charity that delivers advice and support services to people living in the rural districts of Devon who are experiencing crisis, hardship & homelessness. To find out more about Encompass please visit their website at:
https://bpag-encompass.org.uk/
Community Well-being events: created with our partners to provide the opportunity for members of the public to:
- talk about money and debt, to ask questions and get information
- meet face-to-face with local services and community projects
- have informal conversations about health and advice needs
- get involved in a new activity
Our Stakeholder Forums are held every 6 months to review project progress and partnership working with local voluntary and statutory-sector organisations. These forums are well-attended and provide a valuable opportunity to network and share knowledge. We facilitate discussions about the issues and challenges we face and how they impact on our clients and service-users. We provide updates on any new projects we are starting and welcome feedback about existing projects.
To find out more about our Community Development work, please click here.
Navigate…Our Achievements….
we have:
Developed a strong community development programme focused on service providers and consumers and gained a reputation for high quality, dependable delivery.
Built and shared learning to inform practice, encouraged greater sector investment and facilitated effective, integrated working.
Created a network of advice and support by working in partnership, deep in the community, alongside third and statutory-sector organisations, complementing their services and equipping them to respond to and refer individuals with identified needs.
Provided tailored combinations of services which help clients address a range of financial issues.
Innovated services which meet the needs of vulnerable groups; offering face-to-face solutions to people in their own homes.
Continued to strive to improve our processes so we deliver the absolute best we can for our funders and our beneficiaries, without sacrificing the quality, impact and development of our service.
Delivered educational workshops, uniquely developed to equip clients with the tools, strategies, skills and knowledge to help manage their finances in a fun, interactive and engaging way.
