The Friends was set up in 1990 as a registered charity. It was originally supported by the local business community in Tunbridge Wells and District because those businesses had used the advice service offered by the main Tunbridge Wells Citizens Advice office to advise their staff on redundancies which were occurring at the time. The Friends committee has worked closely with the main office from 1990 onwards to raise funds towards the vital work that dedicated staff carry out each day.
The Charitable Object of the Friends is to “assist the charitable work of the bureaux in providing relief and assistance to clients of the bureaux and other persons who are in need of assistance or advice“.
The Friends raise funds by hosting very enjoyable sociable events; the Quiz Night, Art Exhibitions, Fayres, a Golf Day etc, running the Monthly Lottery, seeking individual and corporate donations. Wherever possible, we try to link Friends' fundraising opportunities to specific advice projects run by the Bureaux.
Committee members are known for their enthusiasm and commitment to the work volunteers and staff do on behalf of the community. We try to be as creative as possible in coming up with ideas for events and we all enjoy holding our regular events and meeting up again with our supporters and the Friends of the Friends. We aim to attract new supporters too, at each of our events.
The Committee welcomes new members who share our strong desire to support and work with the offices.
There are only a very few Friends' organisations supporting local Citizens Advice and we are proud that the Friends of Citizens Advice Tunbridge Wells & District was the first in the country. We are proud that since 2002 we have managed to raise on average £10,000 a year and our plan is to raise more each year.