Caritas Jersey

Jersey is not always what it looks like in the brochures. Behind the sandy beaches and sun-drenched photographs, a significant number of people on the island are surviving rather than thriving, working multiple jobs, struggling to cover rent and navigating an expensive welfare system. For some workers, many on three-year permits, there is no modern slavery legislation to protect them when employers withhold wages or block them from moving jobs. Caritas Jersey exists to meet people in that gap.

Founded in 2014 as part of the wider international Caritas network, the organisation works across four areas: a prisoner family support scheme; a social inclusion project; the Jersey Living Wage Campaign, which sets the island’s living wage, currently standing at £15.10; and a homelessness prevention scheme, helping families at risk of losing their homes.

The scale of need has grown sharply because of issues like the cost of living, rising numbers of natural disasters and tenancy issues. The food bank run by partner charity St Vincent de Paul had 195 families on its books in February 2022. That figure has since risen to over 650. “These are people in work,” says Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Lynch. “Their wages used to get them to the end of the month. It’s no longer the case’.

One couple Caritas supported - mum working nights, dad working days - were flooded out of their home during a storm with nowhere to go. Caritas spent six months arranging emergency accommodation, negotiating the lease, and working with the family through the trauma their young son had experienced.

It was against this troublesome backdrop that the 40th anniversary grant from Lloyds Bank Foundation arrived, and its timing proved critical. Caritas had never received unrestricted funding, and the effect was immediate. Rather than splitting his days between casework and funding applications, Patrick was able to focus fully on a new residential tenancy law working its way through the States Assembly, Jersey’s elected parliament. Of 49 Assembly members, 23 were landlords; meaningful reform looked unlikely. But with the space to work intensively alongside politicians and partner charities, Caritas helped push the law through. It came into force in early April.

The Foundation’s support has extended well beyond the grant itself. Patrick’s relationship with the Foundation dates to his first months in post in 2019, and through COVID and beyond: the connection has remained close. When the fallow year arrived and Caritas could not apply directly, the Foundation proactively brokered introductions to other funders and helped Caritas access support for Patrick’s own role. “The Foundation not only gave us the opportunity to apply,” he says, “it talked with other funders to help us. You always feel they’re part of the team. You feel seen and cared for.”

Looking ahead, Caritas welcomes working closely with Government. It has partnered with 24 other charities on a shared set of asks covering housing, health access, homelessness legislation, and, above all, modern slavery law. Until Jersey has it, exploitation of the kind Caritas regularly witnesses cannot be properly addressed.

Patrick is clear about what success looks like: “Ultimately, we want to put ourselves out of business. I fear we’ll still be needed. But it’s about progression. Getting things better for everyone in Jersey.”