Thrive to Survive

Thrive to Survive is a support service where we advocate and support families and vulnerable women living in Ellesmere Port and Elton who are experiencing financial hardship or crisis. We believe everyone should be able to thrive and not have to simply just survive.

It all started with a cup of tea and a chat! We got chatting about the current struggles people are facing in our local area and realised that there was a need to advocate and support people that are falling through the gaps and struggling to access support. Each member of Thrive to Survive has experience of hardship whether that is food insecurity, homelessness, financial hardship or mental health difficulties and at some point we have all felt like we didn’t know where to turn or go for help. With Thrive to Survive we hope to bring the people of Ellesmere Port and Elton together, offer guidance and support and be that helping hand for people when they don’t know where to turn.

We set up Thrive to Survive in May of this year, so we’ve been going for six months now!

Ever since COVID and with the current pressures of the Cost of Living, a lot of services have had to sadly move away from face to face support and a lot of the services are now only accessible digitally. After a lot of conversations with people, we found that a lot of residents struggle to access online support or even know what help they need in the first place. So, for us it was a no brainer, being able to offer a safe space where people could come and drop in and seek support whilst being guided through the process.

The main thing we offer at Thrive to Survive is helping people to navigate the support they are entitled to. We will meet with people fortnightly and then we will assist them with what is needed, such as help with form filling or contacting the relevant services alongside them. This is to help relieve some of the strain and pressure off the individual. For example, if a person comes to us and they are at risk of becoming homeless, we help them to access services such as Housing Options or ForFutures, as well as possibly helping them to look for alternative accommodation and apply for any funding they might need. Same with financial and food support, when funding allows us to do so we help provide immediate/short term help such as a supermarket voucher or a hamper and then we provide support in the long term, such as looking at what would prevent them from needing to access immediate support again in the future, and then we help them and support them through the process.

Any families or vulnerable women who live in either the Ellesmere Port or Elton area can access Thrive to Survive. We hold Fortnightly sessions on a Friday 11am - 1pm at Thelwall Road Community Centre in Ellesmere Port and we are currently looking to hold drop ins at Elton. Alternatively, people can get in touch with us by email: admin@thrivesurvive.net, telephone: 07831104826 or via our Facebook page (Thrive to Survive) and we can arrange to meet up with them. Our phone line is open Monday - Friday (9:30am - 6pm).

Thrive to Survive is making a real difference and we’re incredibly proud of some of the assistance we’ve been able to provide to people in our local communities. Recently, a family was referred to us by one of the local primary schools in the area, they were struggling to get their child into school due to being in temporary accommodation out of the area. Thrive to Survive managed to arrange transport for the family to and from school and we also managed to sort out furniture, so the family was able to move into their new property quicker. This has made a huge difference to the family in regard to their mental wellbeing.

We have also been supporting an individual who came to us experiencing domestic abuse and needed housing related support. We have managed to make a difference both personally and practically. With our help, the individual is now on the local housing register, has been assigned an Independent Domestic Violence Advocate (IDVA) and also managed to access support services to get relevant legal advice. Their mental health and confidence has improved in the three months we have been supporting them. We asked the individual to share with us how they found getting support from Thrive to Survive “I was so glad when I started getting help from the ladies at thrive to survive before them I really didn’t know what to do or where I could go to get the help I needed. It has helped so much with my mental health as I know that they are there when I need it and has made reaching out to services much better, I am not as overwhelmed now. I feel like I have someone on my side for once”.

Thrive to Survive is currently run by 5 volunteers who are passionate about helping others in need in their local area. If you’d like to get involved in volunteering, contact us on 07831104826.

For more information about Thrive to Survive, visit:
www.thrivesurvive.net