The help that the BSB provides is often tailored to individual cases and can cover things like providing a grant to support someone in the middle of a course, funding for art equipment or providing a longer-term loan for course fees where there is a particular need. For further examples of where the BSB helps please refer to our case studies.

The BSB received a request for support from a young lady who had recently fallen on hard times. I offered to meet the beneficiary for a coffee as it was evident, they needed some emotional support and guidance, as well as a financial stopgap. Not having all the legal and financial expertise offered by my fellow G&L committee members, a coffee and a chat is something I could offer. As it happened, the beneficiary had some work experience in the events industry, so I was able to offer professional advice as well as a friendly face. We chatted through the immediate problems, how they saw them being played out and discussed what we could do in the short-term to mitigate them becoming any worse. The most pressing issue was finding a job. I followed up that week with CV consultation and reached out to some contacts in the industry to see if anyone had any suitable opportunities. My current workplace were looking for someone and offered the beneficiary an interview. Between then and the interview taking place, they managed to get themselves a job through an agency. I still keep in touch from time to time to see how they are getting on and all seems to be going swimmingly!