Open a CAP Debt Centre

Lifting people out of debt and poverty

debt help

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Setting

captives

free

In Matthew 25, we are called to live out Jesus’ mission to bring good news to the poor and release the oppressed. As the 21st

century Church, how do we practically reach the poor in our communities and tell them the good news?

You cannot escape the news reports about debt and poverty in Canada. Here in this country, thousands of people will not eat properly today. They will sit in cold homes because they can’t afford to pay utilities. But since 1996, we have seen hundreds of churches rise up to offer people hope and a solution through CAP’s professional debt counselling service. Your church could join them.

You will be there to put an arm around people in their darkest hour, showing God’s love in action. This partnership of CAP’s service and the Church’s compassion is changing thousands of lives every year. Will you join us so that, together, the local church can be the answer to one of the biggest problems our society faces? This is our time, our chance to make a difference.

John Kirkby

Founder & International Director

A CAP Debt Centre provides debt counselling through community-based home visits to lift people out of debt and poverty.

67%

60%

of clients had sacrificed meals due to debt

of clients lived in fear of losing their homes before they came to CAP1

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The problem of

debt in Canada

Why a CAP Debt

Centre is the

answer

in the world, but the reality is that for every dollar Canadians earn, they owe $1.63.2 _{Canadians are playing a} dangerous game with their credit that can lead to total financial destruction. On average, people wait at least one year before seeking help with their debts and the primary reason is because they are ashamed. 40% thought there was nobody who could help them.3 _{Imagine if you were living} like that – trapped without hope of your life ever improving. It is heart breaking to discover that 37% of those in debt think that ending their lives is the only choice.4

At CAP, we have taken a stand against debt – enough is enough. We are calling on the Church to rise up and join us in order to save lives and break the chains of shame and isolation.

A CAP Debt Centre is like a double-edged sword against debt, equipping your church to reach the poor in your community. Not only will you become a centre that delivers the most comprehensive debt counselling service out there, but you will also be able to take Jesus’ love right into people’s living rooms. From there, you will open their eyes to the loving community of God’s Church and be able to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

A partnership with CAP will enable your church to:

• Reach the poor in your community.

• Share the gospel in a relevant way.

• Offer the very best and in-depth debt counselling service.

• See people released from poverty and debt.

• See people come to know Jesus and be discipled by your church.

of clients described their Debt Coach as ‘friendly’5

99%

2. Statistics Canada, 2015.

3-5. Christians Against Poverty client survey 2014.

If it wasn’t

for CAP coming

into my life, I

wouldn’t be here

today. Now I’m

stronger knowing I

have God’s love.

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How it works

The CAP Debt Help process

of clients describe our service as ‘life transforming’ or ‘a great help’.6

92%

6. Christians Against Poverty client survey 2014.

7. A CAP Plan simplifies each client’s finances. They simply make one weekly or monthly payment into their plan to cover all their bills and debts, which we then distribute on their behalf. This simplicity means that clients are able to stick to their budgets, and obstacles to physically paying their debts are removed.

CAP gives your church an award-winning debt counselling tool. We train Debt Coaches to deliver a first class debt counselling service without needing to be a financial genius. They’ll be backed up by a team of professional Caseworkers and Specialist Advisers at our head office. CAP takes care of all of the ‘nitty gritty’ elements of debt counselling centrally. We put together budgets, negotiate with creditors and assess the best route to becoming debt free for every client. This frees up your team to do what the Church does best – love and care for people without judgment.

Your Debt Coach doesn’t need in-depth financial knowledge.

• The quality of the debt counselling is very high, it’s CAP’s responsibility and it’s covered by our licences and insurance.

• Clients can speak to a Caseworker Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 5pm.

The client calls our toll free phone number to speak to our New Enquiries team and book their first appointment.

CAP’s Creditor Liaison Unit negotiates with the secondary creditors.

Your Debt Coach goes to the client’s home to introduce our service, before giving the client time to gather all the necessary paperwork.

On the next visit, your Debt Coach goes through all the client’s financial details and sends the paperwork to CAP’s head office team.

If the client is in severe debt, CAP will discuss the different options with the client including bankruptcy. Our fully trained caseworkers put together a budget and contact priority creditors.

The client’s case is passed on to a dedicated team, who support them until they become debt free. The necessary bills and debts are paid through the client’s CAP Plan. Your Debt Coach goes back to visit the client to explain the budget and set up a CAP Plan.7

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Opening a Debt Centre has been a rich

experience for me and for my church.  As

a church, we are given the opportunity to

step into people’s homes and lives and hear

their story, as they have journeyed through

both emotional and financial issues.

Through God’s grace and guidance, we can

offer hope through the brokenness and

present a way forward through the work of

CAP. 

– Helen, Debt Coach, Meadowlands Fellowship Ancaster, ON

Being a debt coach has been a tremendous

blessing. I am invited into the lives and homes of

some wonderful people who have real struggles.

What a privilege to be able to provide hope to

them, God’s love from the local church

and a real plan to move forward into a

better life.

– Natalie, Debt Coach, Trinity Streetsville Anglican Mississaga, ON

God took my by the hand and led me into being a

Debt Coach. Now He’s teaching me and my church

about what poverty really looks like in our city, and

CAP has given us amazing and practical tools that we

can use to do something about it. We get to share the

Good News about Jesus with people that

we would never have met outside of our

partnership with CAP!

– Lisa, Debt Coach, Cornerstone Church Saskatoon, SK

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We choose to partner with local churches to deliver our debt help because we believe that the Church is the hope of the world. It holds the only message that can change lives and communities now and for eternity. In order to run a CAP Debt Centre, you will need:

• To have your church leader attend a CAP Church Open Day

• A CAP Debt Coach who can work a minimum of 16 hours per week.

• Access to a laptop, the internet and a cell phone.

• A team of volunteers who are willing to support the Debt Coach and befriend CAP clients.

• To host a CAP Speaker to give a talk at a Sunday service, which will include a financial ask.

What your

church needs

to do

• One CAP Debt Coach.

• Prayer and support team.

• Access to a laptop, cell phone and the internet.

You need:

When you partner with us to open a CAP Debt Centre, we will provide your church with:

• All the professional debt

counselling, specialist teams and systems at our head office.

• All training and materials needed for running your debt centre, including publicity and service delivery literature, and regular tailored press releases.

• A dedicated member of the CAP team who support your Debt Coach and act as a point of contact for you as the church leader.

• Comprehensive resources for evangelism and discipleship.

• Access to our central emergency aid fund to provide food hampers or emergency purchases for your clients.

• Access to CAP’s secure IT, email and intranet systems, including ‘Hope’, our custom debt counselling system.

• A CAP Speaker to launch the CAP Debt Centre at a service in your church.

What CAP

provides

200+

clients helped*

$1.7

million

in debt

managed*

Please note that having your own church building isn’t essential, because CAP Debt Help is delivered through home visits.

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How much does it cost?

Opening a new CAP Debt Centre costs CAP around $31,500 per year, but we are happy to invest in local churches that want to help the poor and save the lost in their communities. We do ask that churches share in this cost each year and make a monthly donation towards at least a third of CAP’s costs – a minimum of $875 per month.

However, we don’t want finances to be the factor that stops a church from partnering with us. If money is the only thing stopping you, please talk to us before you make any final decisions.

Launch talk

Hosting a launch talk is vital to the success of the CAP Debt Centre in your church. A CAP Speaker will visit your church to inspire your congregation about the CAP Debt Centre, and motivate people to engage and get involved.8

The launch talk will also inspire your congregation about the wider work of CAP, giving them an opportunity to pray and offer financial support.

8. If a CAP Speaker has already visited your church, a different talk will be delivered at a CAP Debt Centre launch service.

You can also choose to have the following:

• Additional Debt Coaches so that your Debt Centre can see more clients on a monthly basis.

• A Community Links Coordinator who will be trained by CAP to take care of publicity through the press and referral agencies, helping to ensure a steady stream of clients for your Debt Centre.

66

people become

Christians every

month through

our debt

help service

worldwide

$

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Recruiting your team

In-depth financial knowledge is not essential for a Debt Coach or Debt Coach because CAP’s central teams take care of that. This means your team can focus on sharing Jesus’ love and allowing people to respond. CAP will interview all candidates and have final approval on their suitability because they will be representing CAP to communicate debt advice. We will always have the best interests of all parties at heart during this process. Your church can then employ your debt centre staff or they can be volunteers. Their commitment would be to work at least 16 hours per week as a Debt Coach.

Debt Coaches will need to:

A Community Links

Coordinator will need to:

• Have a heart for poverty issues and a desire to get involved on the frontline to help tackle the problem. • Be comfortable and confident

working with a wide variety of people.

• Be able to show previous

evidence of evangelistic work, be comfortable sharing their own faith, and able to lead and pioneer a new ministry in your community.

• Be a great communicator or effective ‘sales person’.

• Be confident communicating on the phone and face-to-face to the press and referral agencies (e.g. doctor’s offices and social services).

I felt so at peace with my

Debt Coach, Diane. She

made me feel better –

really uplifted. I felt like a

different person!

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At your launch service, the visiting CAP Speaker will inspire your congregation about all that God is doing through CAP.

They will also ask people to join us to achieve our goal of having a CAP Debt Centre in every town and city across Canada by supporting the charity with a monthly gift through our Life Changer programme.

As an evangelistic charity, we rely on Life Changers – their support means we don’t have to compromise our beliefs to obtain funding.

Life Changers

of our regular income in 2015 came from our Life Changers.9

We are very open to partnering with a group of churches in order to open a debt centre in your community. Please contact the team to discuss this if it’s relevant to you.

One’s not enough!

There are communities all over the GTA where we already have a CAP Debt Centre. However, that doesn’t mean the debt and poverty problems in that area are taken care of. In many places, particularly major cities like Toronto, we need several debt centres to meet the demand.

If you’re already aware of a church in your location that has opened a CAP Debt Centre, please still get in touch with us.

Working with

another church

I can honestly

say CAP has

transformed

us as a church.

We’ve helped

hundreds of

people out of

debt and we’ve

seen people

come to church

and become

followers of

Christ who would

not have come

otherwise.

– Simon Benham, Senior Pastor, Kerith Community Church,

Bracknell

9. Christians Against Poverty accounts 2014.

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Colleen’s

Story

A Life

Transformed

After my divorce in 1996, I found myself alone and living on a fraction of my income. This led to over a decade of living hand-to-mouth and getting more and more into debt.

My situation eventually got so bad that I tried to take my own life because of the stress that debt was causing. When I reached out to CAP for help, my Debt Coach, Linda, told me that God wanted to walk alongside me and that I didn’t have to to struggle alone anymore. She explained that Jesus wanted to be in my heart. I had never heard that before, and it sounded pretty good!

I decided that day to never be alone again and invited Jesus into my heart!

What to do next

CAP Job Clubs

Order an information pack at capcanada.org/jobclubs

Attend a Church Open Day

The first step to opening a CAP Debt Centre is for your church leader to attend a Church Open Day at our head office in Hamilton, or at one of our regional events around the GTA. This will be an inspiring day and allow you to experience the culture of CAP first hand. You can ask all the questions you need to fully understand how a partnership between CAP and your church works. Your church and community are unique. By discussing your particular situation, we will find the right way forward together.

Church Open Days are free and happen regularly throughout the year – find dates and locations, and book online at

capcanada.org/openday

CAP Release Groups

Order an information pack at capcanada.org/releasegroups

CAP Money Course

Order an information pack at capcanada.org/capmoney

Want to book a CAP Speaker for your church now?

Call our CAP Speaker team at 289-684-9191

Other ways to partner with CAP

If you’re not sure which CAP service is right for your church, just give our Church Partnership team a call at 289-684-9181.

capcanada.org/debthelp

debt help

t: 289-684-9181 e: [email protected]

Registered Office: 383 Hughson Street North, Hamilton, Ontario, L8L 4N2 Corporate Name: Christians Against Poverty Canada

Corporation Number: 822846-9; Business Number: 841397532 Charitable Number: 84139 7532 RR0001

Copyright © 2015 Christians Against Poverty Canada. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced for any purpose without first obtaining written permission from Christians Against Poverty Canada.