In these difficult times of financial hardship and worry, we have decided to expand the Emergency section of The Hardman Directory. You will find here information on places to look if:
We have also added a list of national organisations that can provide emotional support, if you find it is all getting too much.
The information and organisations here are only a snapshot of all the help that is available. If you don’t see local support listed for your area it doesn’t mean there isn’t help available. Your local council, Citizens Advice, library, job centre or probation officer (if you have one) may all be able to help or point you in the right direction.
So it will soon be the day you leave prison and you have nothing, just the clothes you are wearing and your subsistence or discharge grant. What now? The media is describing the current time as a ‘cost of living crisis’ and financially things are getting harder for practically everyone.
Please don’t let your pride get in the way of asking for help, especially when there is support available.
Your probation officer or social worker may be your first source of help. You can volunteer to have probation support, but you might have chosen to live out your licence period ‘inside’. If this is the case, consider contacting faith communities such as The Salvation Army, your local church, mosque or Sikh temple (Gurdwara). You don’t need to have the faith of the religious community you visit.
One Hardman Directory reader visited his local Salvation Army to ask what help they offered and saw a man being given a tent, clean clothes and a dry sleeping bag to replace his soaked and dirty one.