Research and Campaigns

Why do we do it?

Every year, Citizens Advice helps thousands of people in St Albans district with their problems. This gives us a unique insight into the challenges that affect our community. We use this insight to help us to understand the issues that are affecting the wellbeing of local people; and then we lobby for changes in the policies and practices of national and local government, and of businesses, that cause these issues. By doing so we hope that people’s lives can be improved. If we did not undertake this work, the opportunity to use our knowledge to change lives would be lost.

Citizens Advice is respected for its independent and impartial analysis, which means it is listened to by all levels of government. This enables us to campaign effectively for social justice.

How does it work in practice?

All our campaigns are based on the experiences of the people who seek our help. We make a record of every issue brought to us and we analyse those records for evidence about the problems that are affecting many people or causing the most detriment. We choose issues to investigate in more depth; identify the changes that need to be made to reduce or eliminate local people’s problems; and lobby for changes in policies and practices to bring this about.

You can find examples of our recent reports by following this link.

We also add our voice to national campaigns run by Citizens Advice. More details on this can be found by following this link.

Current work

Our current focus is on the effect of large increases in the cost of living on local people.  We are also researching issues related to housing and health inequalities and collecting evidence on the use of food banks and on redundancy processes.

We hope these campaigns will contribute to change that will improve the lives of those who access our advice services, and also of a broader group of people across the district.

How can you help?

If you have been to see us for advice, you can ask your adviser how to get involved in a campaign. For example, we could help you to write to your MP or councillor about your problem.

If you would like to get involved in this area of work, then why not consider becoming a campaign volunteer? For further details, follow this link.