We are West Glasgow Against Poverty (WestGAP), a long-established, independent, community-based anti-poverty charity and we are opening our doors for the launch of WestGAP 100, our new community fundraising initiative. We are based in Partick but have a city-wide reach - our advice service accepts clients regardless of where they are from and we campaign and educate on poverty issues with a much wider salience.

We operate a very busy advice service, one of the few left in the west of the city as others have been hit by savage cuts to advice providers. Unlike others, we rely wholly on unpaid volunteers and have managed to survive. Unfortunately, we are now feeling the financial strain too. The charitable trusts, foundations and grant-making bodies who we've relied on to help cover our running costs over the past 12 years have all been badly affected by the greed of bankers and the current economic situation. Many of these funding streams have dried up and we are now turning to the wider community and asking for your support to help sustain our work, which is now even more vital as job and public service cuts mean more and more ordinary people are beginning to feel the pinch.

Our WestGAP 100 drive is to find 100 groups or individuals willing to donate £20 per month, which would cover all our running costs and other expenses. This would mean we are sustainable in the long-term and rather than continually chase our tails trying to find funding we could concentrate on fighting poverty. We would of course also greatly appreciate any financial support so donations - one-off or monthly standing order - would be very welcome. Likewise, we are looking for groups, individuals and businesses who would like to adopt us as a chosen charity and run marathons, bungee jump or run events or raffles for us. If you want to help (or find out more) please come along to our Open Day on Saturday. We look forward to seeing you.

For more info about WestGap:
Website (a work-in-progress): www.westgap.co.uk
Email: westgap@talk21.com
Tel: 0141 342 4343

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