Generous donation helps debt advice service to continue to thrive

A debt advice service in Bentley, born out of the devastating floods in 2019 to help people with their finances, has benefitted from a charitable donation of £4,000 from Doncaster’s six local Lions Clubs to help continue its work.

CMA Bentley, part of St Peter’s Church, provide free debt advice and were boosted by the timely donation from Doncaster Lions Club through South Yorkshire Community Foundation’s Flood Fund.

Since opening, CMA Bentley have supported thirty clients to deal with more than £250,000 of unmanageable debts.  Of those clients, they have successfully helped six of them to apply for a Debt Relief Order (DRO), which has seen £85,611.36 of debt written off.

Upon hearing they had been successful in applying for a DRO, one of the clients, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “That’s amazing. Thank you so much, honestly you don’t understand how much it means and how grateful I am.” They went on to do the Money Essentials Workshop and discovered how to maintain control of their finances in the future.

We are so grateful to Doncaster’s Lions Clubs for this generous donation which will help us extend the life of our project. We are here for all the communities of North Doncaster, but we are particularly keen to help clients from Town End and other areas affected by the floods in 2019.

Karen Jones, centre manager at CMA Bentley

When the 2019 floods wreaked havoc in the region, the Doncaster Clubs wanted to help and so made an appeal to all Lions Clubs across the UK to help them raise funds.

We became aware of a scheme in the Bentley area where work was being undertaken to support local residents who had found themselves in debt as a result of the flooding and it was decided to make a contribution towards helping this project which met the criteria set for our donations.

David Wells, the Lions District Treasurer

We were heavily involved in the response to the floods and saw the devastation it brought to our communities. People were worried about their financial situations, including managing their existing debts compounded by the floods and later by the Covid-19 pandemic, so this money has been used to lessen the financial stress debt brings to individuals.

Ruth Willis, CEO of South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

  • South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation helps to support and build strong resilient communities across the region. It provides community groups with grant funding through its many donors, to help people facing hardship and disadvantage alongside those working to improve the communities they live in. SYCF connects people, who care about South Yorkshire and want to invest in supporting the Foundation to build stronger and healthier communities. Over the last 35 years South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation has awarded more than £31 million in community grants. sycf.org.uk
  • Doncaster’s Six Local Lions Clubs are part of the world’s largest service organisation (Lions Clubs International), with 1.40million members serving in 212 countries and geographic areas. The association is both non-political and non-sectarian. Doncaster’s Clubs are Doncaster Lions Club; Doncaster Went Valley Lions Club; Thorne Rural Lions Club; Tickhill & District Lions Club; Mexborough & District Lions Club: and Warmsworth & Edlington Lions Club. They are part of Lions District 105N which covers Yorkshire, North East England and Scotland. There are 74 clubs and 1100 members in the District.  Our Charitable Foundation does not raise money from the public but receives donations for appeals from the 74 clubs. doncasterlions.co.uk.