In 2024, you helped families get ahead
“It was such a relief, I’m so grateful for the Mission’s help,” says Marie* when she was asked how she is going after coming under the wing of our Energy Wellbeing Service in 2024.
Marie has young children and was deep in debt when she came to us. Her power bills were crippling and she was stuck in the grim cycle of getting deeper in debt to pay debt and couldn’t make any progress. Your impact on Marie and her family was spectacular.
Our home energy assessor paid a visit and discovered many ways she could cut her power costs – including turning down the heat pump temperature, turning it off when not using it, cleaning the filters, reducing the hot water temperature, turning off appliances, and putting in a low-flow shower head. She was also linked with our Financial Mentoring Service.
As a result, Marie cut her power use by two thirds. She is thrilled to have that extra money for the other costs of bringing up a family.
“I’m going to do my best to keep the changes going and I have done that so far,” Penny says proudly.
The challenge of paying power bills can be overwhelming and power bills are why many people come to our foodbank needing help. Families are forced to put power ahead of food.
As well as helping people in crisis, we also want to help them move towards independent lives. So we jumped at the chance when the opportunity came to run a Government-backed energy wellbeing service locally in 2024.
Our service has two parts to it. We offer the home energy assessment that Penny benefitted from, which can also lead to recommendations to use other City Mission services.
We also do power assessments where our expert looks at what power the family needs, then helps them find the best plan and provider, and checks they are getting the subsidies they are entitled to. Sometimes the assessment can save them hundreds of dollars. We have families that could potentially save $600 a year if they follow our recommendations.
The impact of getting this help in finding extra money for their lives can be very emotional. Our assessors have had big hugs and seen clients close to tears.
One man we helped had children and we offered him a Christmas food parcel. No thank you, he said. He was doing okay. Then we asked if he needed presents to give his kids “and he almost broke down in tears on the phone. He said, I just can’t believe the support and help that you are giving me.”
Your impact goes beyond dollars and cents. It gives hope to families in need.
* Name changed
Photo Caption: We spread the word about our energy wellbeing service in the community.