Newmarket councillors Kevin Yarrow, Sue Perry and Janne Jarvis help spread more than £300,000 reach of Reach Community Projects

Newmarket councillors helped to spread the more than £300,000 reach of a community initiative through locality budget donations.

Kevin Yarrow and Janne Jarvis met with Diana Allin and Katie Chappell from Reach Community Projects at the launch of the Racing Centre’s community pantry last month. Having further discussed the organisation’s needs the councillors, alongside their colleague Cllr Sue Perry, donated £4,500 to assist its operations.

Reach aims to lift people out of poverty while preventing others from falling in, and for every pound donated it obtained nearly £7 of positive financial outcomes for its Newmarket clients. In the town, it assisted with more than £170,000 of benefits, helped to manage nearly £130,000 of debt and gave out more than £8,700 in client aid.

Cllr Yarrow said: “We realised they were increasing their clientele quite dramatically and were in need of considerable sums to keep their work going. They (Katie and Diana) gave us a complete breakdown of the way they’re spending their money and how Diana is working more and more in Newmarket.

“As local councillors, we want to help local people, locally, and the locality budget is for that. Reach is reaching out to people in Newmarket and it’s terrific.”

Cllr Yarrow was also effusive in his praise for the way Reach co-ordinates with other charities in the town, such as the pantry and Racing Welfare. Reach is a separate entity to the latter, but receives many referrals from it.

Diana said she is busier than ever with her work in Newmarket and referrals have increased since the launch of the pantry, with around two extra each day so far.

She said: “It’s always satisfying when we’ve been able to help somebody, whether it’s small or alleviating some financial pressure – that’s what we’re there to do.

“I love helping people; Newmarket is a special place and the people are amazing, if we can make even a small dent in battling the poverty there then it’s wonderful.”

Diana said she still sees clients from when she first started the Reach project in the town three years ago, and the relationships she builds with them are brilliant to experience. She paid tribute to the wider admin team behind her project in the town, whom she said without she could not help in the way she does.

While the majority of Reach’s work is referred, it does have a small amount of self-referrals.

Diana added anyone who is in need should pick up the phone to the charity and make the call and it will do whatever it can to help.