Goodbye!

Exeter CAB through the ages… who knows what the next 65 years will hold?

So that’s it. A year’s worth of research, countless meetings in Exeter CAB‘s training room and A LOT of laughs has resulted in 104 books, 100 DVDs, a blog, an exhibition, a Historypin site and a page on Exeter CAB’s main website. (The day after our celebratory launch event, there were also four very hungover volunteers [us] but the less said about that the better!)

Through this unique, enlightening and fun project, made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, we’ve been able to tell the amazing story of Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau. Thank you to Devon Records Office, Westcountry Studies Library, David Cornforth’s informative website and everyone who gave up their time to help with our research.

Special thanks to the staff and volunteers, past and present, who have worked tirelessly for Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau to make it such a well-respected and valued organisation.

Here’s to the next 65 years!

We’ve loved pretty much every minute of this project, as you can see from our beaming faces!

Exhibition Evening

First and foremost, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who came to our Launch Evening at Exeter CVS. It was a fantastic night; we had a brilliant turn-out (about 65 people, appropriately) and the much-anticipated pork-pie platter went down a treat. It was great to be able to share all the work and research we’ve been doing over the past year and was especially lovely to be reunited with many of our interviewees.

Peggy (Exeter CAB adviser), Karen (Team Leader) and Bex

Over 60 people came to our Exhibition Evening – here they are, enraptured by Steve’s speech!

The Book(s) – Sue is now the Queen of Indesign

Our displays, including material for our Heritage Lottery Fund digital record

We set up the smaller room as a ‘cinema’ and projected the 15-minute Exeter CAB 65 film on a loop. We even had popcorn (thanks to Sue’s brainwave in the early hours of that morning!)

As far as we know, no-one fell asleep whilst watching the film… That’s what we call a success

Special thanks to Sue’s friend, Helen, who managed to take lots of photos, and organise all the displays, food and drinks (as well as organising Sue and I who, as usual, were faffing around with velcro, projectors, popcorn and various other things…) Thank you to Dennis Mardon (Chair of Trustees) and Steve (Director) for their speeches. Last, but by no means least, thanks very much to Liz at CVS for all her help, patience and technical expertise (if anyone ever need a 2-room venue in Exeter for an evening function we highly recommend going to Exeter CVS!)

Read The Book…

If you’re a history geek or book-worm like us, you’ve come to the right place. Click on the link below to read The Book (uploaded as a PDF – it’s 52 pages so may take a couple of minutes to download). Happy reading…

Our City Charity: A History of Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau

The front cover of The Book using CAB colours, of course!

Watch The Film…

https://vimeo.com/77212736

This 15-minute film tells the story of Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau through the voices of its volunteers, paid staff, and most importantly, its clients.

Since Exeter CAB was set up in 1947, it’s received over half a million enquiries.

This video been produced by Bex Devaraj and Suzanne McQueenie, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s All Our Stories programme.

Finally, special thanks to all the staff and volunteers, past and present, who have worked tirelessly for Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau, to make it such a well-respected and valued organisation.

For more information about the bureau, please visit https://www.exetercab.org.uk

Hurrah!

HURRAH! The film is finished! The book has been sent to press! The exhibition boards need a few more tweaks and then they will be scaled up to A2 size and printed!

Re: the Big ‘Launch’. The date has been set; the venue decided; the invitations sent out. Now, the most important decision needs to be made: what are we going to do about catering? Home-made or shop-bought sandwiches? Sparkling water or sparkling wine (I think we all know the answer to that!)? Is it too clichéd to have sausage rolls, party rings and cheese-and-pineapple-on-sticks (perhaps, but who cares?)

After a year of research, emails, hard-work, meeting lovely people, confusion, set backs, creative bursts and lots of laughs, we’ve done it. We have actually produced a 52-page book, 15-minute film and eight exhibition boards.

As Sue said on the phone yesterday, ‘I’m glad we’ve finally produced something now; I was a bit worried at one stage that everyone thought we were just having a laugh and not actually doing any work!’

I feel really proud/slightly amazed that together we’ve compiled 7-decades worth of ‘stuff’ into, hopefully, a professional-looking, interesting book and an informative and engaging film.

I (Bex) was primarily responsible for the film, while Sue took on The Book. Sue went from a total ‘Indesign Novice’ to nothing short of an ‘Indesign Genius’ in about a week and I hope it’s not too strange or patronising to say, but I’m so proud that she designed a whole book (which also looks great and fits really well with all the other CAB branding).

Apologies if this post is a bit self-congratulatory, but there were moments I thought we’d still be doing this project by the time Exeter CAB reached it’s 100^th anniversary (hey, Sue, there’s a thought… we could reunite and I will push your wheelchair for you…)

Finally, it would be fantastic if as many people as wanted/were able came along to our Exhibition Evening on Wednesday 30^th October at Wat Tyler House in Exeter. If you would like to join us and help celebrate 65 years of Exeter CAB, please email Sue at sue@exetercab.org.uk

We look forward to seeing you there!

P.S. If you can’t wait until then, you can watch the film in the post below… Please let us know what you think – any feedback would be very much appreciated! Thank you.

Yesterday and Today

We’ve been busy compiling lists of questions asked by Exeter CAB clients over the bureau’s 65-year history. From queries documented in the very first annual report (published in April 1948), to enquires the bureau received as recently as last week.

We were surprised that so many questions asked in recent years bore such a striking resemblance to the past.

Have a look at this and see what you think…

P.S. Please click on the table to enlarge it.

We’re Halfway There

We are now well past the halfway mark in our project and it feels like a good time to look at what we’ve achieved and how much we still have to do.

The path our project has taken has changed as it has developed. Very conscious that the grant from the Heritage Lottery is from its ‘All Our Stories’ programme, we knew we had to use people’s memories and experiences. But what became apparent after  lots of media appeals, poster campaigns and workshops were a couple of things: The types of problems people discussed with the CAB were very personal and often painful for them to revisit and there was also a very straightforward problem of them not being able to remember very well.

But what we did encounter was an enormous amount of goodwill towards the charity and dozens of former members of staff and volunteers who were able to tell us all about the CAB’s history.

This picture is from the front cover of a book, “The Story of the Citizens Advice Bureaux”, which Sue found online. The book was written by Margaret E. Brasnett, to commemorate the national CAB’s Silver Anniversary in 1964.

We went back to the Lottery and explained our dilemma. They agreed that the project’s new path was as worthy and suitable and we set about recording interviews with people who had been involved in the organisation since the 1960s – and they had some great stories to tell.

From L-R (clockwise): Robert, Muriel and Gerda

All the time we were conscious that we would love to get perhaps one or two people who had been helped. And thanks to our on-going relationship with St Sidwell’s Centre, where we held a couple of workshops, we found Muriel.

Muriel is the most amazing lady. She is 93 and attends the centre regularly. She had experienced quite a lot of hardship in her life, but she was willing to talk to us on camera and she told us about when she first visited the CAB in the early 1950s for help with childcare for her young daughter.

We want to say thanks to Muriel, she looked beautiful on camera and gave us a lovely open and honest interview. We both came away feeling really moved that she took the time to help us and be so open with us.

So now we are planning our exhibition, more details to come of this, we’ve started writing the book and Bex is starting to pull together all the interviews she has recorded. We hope to create something of quality which will record and reflect the work of the CAB in the city since 1947 and also look to the future of this important charity.

A photo of current Exeter CAB staff and volunteers, taken on a training day in June 2013.

Exeter Respect Festival 2013

Promoting Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau and our CAB 65 project in the sunshine at the brilliant Exeter Respect Festival 2013… and this is called work?!

Despite an unnaturally early start for a Sunday morning (we arrived in Belmont Park at 9am to find our stall), we were all in high spirits and got to work straight away, organising our many leaflets and blowing up 100 CAB balloons.

We quickly developed various tactics to ensure as many people as possible (unwittingly) helped to promote Exeter CAB around the festival. Children – and the odd young-at-heart grown-up – were presented with balloons, which they all seemed to love, thanks to the bright, almost-blinding shade of lemon-yellow. Babies helped out too, by (proudly) wearing CAB stickers on their baby-gros. Adults found their arms and bags stuffed with leaflets and posters, before they could realise what was happening.

Our table at Exeter Respect Festival 2013

In between chatting to/accosting passers-by, we also managed to have a good look around the Respect Festival, which was absolutely packed. From clothes stalls to jewellery dens, burger vans to Philippine cuisine, water-slides to yoga, this year’s festival had something for everyone. And we mustn’t forget to mention the lovely fireman from Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service…

Sue, in the music field, looking even more excited than usual

Overall, the day was lots of fun and very productive – and not just because we all got a decent tan, thanks to the sun finally making a very welcome appearance – but because we managed to present hundreds of CAB stickers, dozens of balloons and endless leaflets to unsuspecting babies/toddlers/adults passing by, resulting in the name and logo of Exeter CAB being implanted into the subconscious of the next generation… Not bad for a day’s work, spent mostly eating ice-cream and watching belly-dancers in the tent next door!

L-R: Bernard, Sue and Steve in what is possibly the strangest photo ever

Thanks to everyone who came down and supported us, and particularly to Exeter CAB’s Bernard Pugh for manning the stall all day. Special thanks to Joe and Will McQueenie for being the best balloon blower-uppers the Respect Festival has ever seen!

Oral History – It’s Time to Get Your Geek On!

https://vimeo.com/65739165

All you ever wanted to know about this fascinating subject…

Interviews, Tea and Chocolate Biscuits

The last few weeks have been a cycle of interviews, tea, chocolate biscuits, interviews, tea, chocolate biscuits, interviews, tea, chocolate biscuits (you get the picture)… what a lovely way to spend the day!

A constant (wonderful) cycle of interviews, tea and chocolate biscuits

We have been going interview-crazy and already have six in the bag (wahoo – a moment of self-congratulations, if you please). Everyone has been so helpful and their enthusiasm and respect for the CAB just shines through.

When it comes to interviewing, we are a good team. Sue – with years of journalistic experience in print under her belt – asks reams of insightful questions, without a single note.

A very accurate summary of our working day

I (Bex) have learnt so much from watching Sue – how to put interviewees at ease, how to produce concise minutes from meetings and I now know more about train museums in South West England than I ever thought possible. But I like to hope Sue has also learnt a little about conducting interviews for broadcast. The silence you must adopt, to avoid having a million ‘oohs’ and ‘mm-hms’ to edit out. The way you must sit stiller than a statue – no gesturing or crazy arm movements – lest your rogue hand ruins a perfect shot.

I think Sue might perhaps be under the impression that I have a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde persona: usually quite easy-going and up for a giggle but as soon as the camera is running, an unforeseen bossy, dictatorial and pernickety ogre springs out of nowhere. Still, Sue appears to have got used to my (now I come to think about it) slightly sinister soft tap on her shoulder, when her excitable, gesticulating limbs threaten to spill into shot. And she seems perfectly OK to morph into a mute during the interviews… Heaven forbid she accidently gives a verbal prompt of encouragement to an interviewee – the resulting shoulder tap / icy glare is not worth making such an elementary mistake!

As well as being a great interview team, we also share a remarkable talent for crashing into things – Sue got stuck in a door, and thinking no-one had noticed, strolled nonchalantly into the meeting room to be met by Bex, laughing helplessly. But it all evened out when Bex was walking and talking (multi-tasking again) and walked straight into a lamppost…