Please note: This event is being hosted externally and not through Exchange Wales. Family & Community external events listings are posted to inform the wider community about external events including workshops, opportunities for families, children and young people, and helpful resources.
Free online sessions to frontline workers throughout Wales from May 2022 and continuing into 2023. These are being delivered in Zoom and in Microsoft Teams. The timing and pattern of these courses depend upon demand.
We all know that tens of millions of pounds in benefits and other help currently goes unclaimed in Wales. That’s money which can make a real difference in families’ lives and their futures. The reasons why this help isn’t taken up are many, and sometimes complex, but the main reasons are because people don’t know the help is there or don’t believe that they could qualify for it. Many people are also nervous in asking about what help there might be for them. They may not know who to ask about what help is available or they may not want to seem as if they need help.
Last year saw the very successful Welsh Government funded project – Dangos – raise the awareness of financial issues for over 3,500 frontline workers in Wales. This year, a second round of Dangos has started – even bigger and better.
Who is it for?
As well as the basic courses they ran last year, this year they are also offering a range of intermediate level sessions for people with more experience. These intermediate sessions are designed for people who want a refresher of their existing knowledge and practice. They’re not designed to turn people into advisers but they’re great for people who attended the basic courses or who’ve been working with people in need of support for a while.
Dangos aims to increase the knowledge and awareness about the availability of help for frontline workers. That is people who are in day-to-day contact, whether paid or voluntary, with families who might need extra help. They aren’t going to try to turn people into benefit experts or advisers in either session. In the basic course they just want to give people some more knowledge and information about what help there is and some tips in encouraging people to take up their rights. The refresher element of the intermediate sessions will be particularly useful where staff may not be fully aware of the wide ranging changes that have happened over recent years.
About the sessions
There’ll be sessions with more focus for those particularly interested in housing, health care or social care and also for those who want a bit more detail on benefits. The main content is common, so we don’t recommend doing multiple sessions. The aim of these is to broaden people awareness of the wide range of help from different sources in Wales and to encourage working together.
The free online sessions to frontline workers throughout Wales from May 2022 and continuing into 2023. Both levels of course will be three-hour long sessions, very interactive and supported by information packs, and, for those who want it, free access to more detailed e-learning courses about the benefits system and how it works. The sessions and the information pack will be provided in Welsh and English, as will some of the online courses. The online sessions will be delivered in Zoom and in Microsoft Teams. The timing and pattern of these courses will be dependent upon demand.
They will also be offering free online courses for groups of staff from the same agencies, between 10 and 20 in each session, and will be ‘tweaking‘ the content of the intermediate sessions for those with a focus on benefits, social care, housing or health care.
The Dangos website gives more details and allows people to register, individually, for sessions.
If you would like any more information, or are interested in in-house sessions, please contact us at info@dangos.cymru or info@dangos.wales.
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