Community Link Worker evaluation
The evaluation highlights that the service has had a positive impact on clients, foodbanks and Community Links Workers themselves.
Since 2014 the Community Links Worker Programme has been supporting individuals to improve their health and wellbeing by helping them to access assistance with issues such as poverty, loneliness and isolation, housing, debt, and abuse.
In July 2023, recognising that foodbanks are a vital source of help for people experiencing poverty, Trussell’s Pathfinder Programme funded two Trussell foodbanks to commission the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) to deliver a foodbank-based Community Links Worker (CLW) service.
CLWs are located in two foodbanks: Glasgow South West and East Dunbartonshire. The CLWs provide practical and emotional support for foodbank clients with various challenges including poverty or income related issues, mental health and wellbeing, and housing. The service is designed to empower clients to address their challenges and improve their ability to access support in the future.
In November 2024, in the service’s second year, Glasgow South West and East Dunbartonshire foodbanks commissioned The Lines Between to conduct an independent evaluation of the foodbank-based Community Links Worker service. The evaluation involved interviews with foodbank clients, staff and stakeholders.
The evaluation highlights that the CLW service has had a positive impact on clients, foodbanks and the CLWs, including:
Supporting clients to alleviate poverty and challenges with everyday living costs
Helping clients to access support, referrals to other specialist services also enhance clients’ awareness of and relationship with other services
Foodbank staff feel the CLWs have enhanced their ability to focus on their own roles, and appreciate that the CLWs enhance the holistic support that the foodbank can provide to address the underlying causes of food poverty
CLWs find their role rewarding and feel they receive adequate support with the challenges of working with vulnerable people
Read more about the service and the findings in the report: Community Links evaluation report highlights positive impacts - Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland