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Liudmyla and Stephen, with her portrait

Learn the story of Dreams & Realities, and the stories behind it

A powerful new art exhibition has been launched, telling the stories and aspirations of people in poverty.

Dreams & Realities is on display at St Mary’s Church in Sheffield, and will then go on tour as part of the Let’s End Poverty campaign.

Dreams & Realities of people's lives

Stephen Martin, a local artist, has painted acrylic portraits of nine people living in poverty in Sheffield, including himself.

Each picture shows the person, something that depicts their economic reality, and something that represents the dreams and ambitions they would pursue if they were not held back by poverty and unjust systems.

The project has been coordinated by Yo Tozer-Loft, who runs a community choir at St Mary’s, with support from Church Action on Poverty.

Three of the portraits on the wall

Yo says:

“I really hope the paintings show the reality for a lot of people in this country. There are still a lot of people constrained to live on the front line of poverty and I really hope this project shows their humanity by their dreams. All humans have dreams and as humans together we should enable each other’s dreams, and Governments should enable the health and the dreams of the people they govern.”

————

Stephen's story

Stephen’s self-portrait includes a wellbeing journal, which has helped him with his mental health.

The background is black, as the electrical circuits in Stephen’s home blew more than ten years ago, so he has lived without electricity ever since. His income is only £340 a month.

Stephen says:

“Just being on benefits, I feel the pinch come the end of the month. It’s a struggle just to get by day by day, so I hope the message we’re putting over in this exhibition about poverty does have an effect in the General Election campaign and it does become a major issue within the election.”

————

Dreams & Realities: The launch

A shot from upstairs of the choir singing in St Mary's Bramall Lane

The exhibition was launched at St Mary’s in March, at a special celebratory concert, which also included the choir singing Disney songs.

The initial response to the paintings was incredible, with many people deeply moved by the stories, and encouraged to get involved in the Let’s End Poverty campaign.

The people behind the paintings

Wayne stands in front of his portrait
Wayne in front of his portrait at the Dreams & Realities launch.

The stories in the exhibition are deep and diverse.

For instance, Wayne, who is homeless and who supports people hit hard by the cost of living scandal, dreams of empowering others to overcome issues such as racial injustice and homeless.

Liudmyla moved to Sheffield as a refugee from Ukraine, and the school where she had taught was bombed in the war. Her dream is to gain English teaching qualifications so she can resume teaching, but the great uncertainty around the war and her right to stay in England are represented in the painting by a crystal ball.

  • More detail on all the individual stories is included in the exhibition.
  • Dreams & Realities will be on display at St Mary’s Church, Bramall Lane, Sheffield, until the end of April. See the church website for opening hours.
  • The exhibition will then tour nationally in support of the Let’s End Poverty campaign. 

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This is Church Action on Poverty’s statement on the 2024 Budget. It includes the views of our expert advisors with direct current experience of poverty.

Church Action on Poverty's logo, alongside the Houses of Parliament

The 2024 Budget further punishes and marginalises people on the lowest incomes, and is outrageous and counter-productive.

That’s the message from social justice campaigners with Church Action on Poverty.

Recent Budgets have rarely provided adequate support or good news for people on low incomes, despite polling showing that 88% of the British public think more should be done to tackle poverty.

Further cuts to public services will harm communities and people who are most likely to need public systems such as health services, libraries, social housing, public transport, and children’s and youth centres.

Calculations by Church Action on Poverty indicate a two-parent family on £60,000 a year will be about £3,100 better off a year as a result of the Budget and Autumn statement, including cuts to National Insurance and the increases to child benefit given only to higher income households, whereas the childcare assistant or teaching assistant charged with looking after their children on a starting salary of £14.500 will be a grand total of £80 better off. 

How can this be right? 

And someone unable to work due to disability or caring responsibilities will not be better off by a single penny. How can this be right?

Our advisers, all of whom have direct current experience of poverty, have called for a more just tax system, action to fix the UK’s broken housing system; and investment in a long-term future for everyone rather than short-term tweaks.

A headshot of Stef Benstead ,with a quote: "When they are spending money, it should be to help poorer people, not funding tax cuts for richer people."

Stef Benstead said:

“I would want them to be increasing taxes on the wealthiest people so they can fund social care and health care properly. When they are spending money, it should be to help poorer people, not funding tax cuts for richer people.

“The Chancellor’s supporters say countries with low taxes grow fastest, but that’s only in the short term, because you then have a bust. IMF research has shown that the more equal countries grow fastest in the long term because they do not have that bust afterwards.

“We need to look at what makes for steady long-term growth. The answer is to reduce inequality. Data shows we could be much more equal – more equal than Scandinavian countries – and still improve growth. We need to look at what makes for long-term growth, and the way to do that is taxing the very richest, because they currently take too much for themselves.

“It’s not a matter of punishing wealth, but of deterring rich people from over-paying themselves excessively while their staff are struggling on low pay.”

Tracy Porter said:

“We need to commit to meaningful co-production policies with people who have experienced the impact of previous policies.

“I would also like to see more done to increase digital inclusion. So many people have not got the same access, and that means their opportunities are limited, whereas if they had equal access then people could achieve more.

“It affects young people at school and also older people, who maybe are told to use technology to do tasks and send things. It’s not just about having the technology, but also knowing how to use it.

“It is estimated that it costs around £120,000 to raise a child to the age of 18. £120,000 is a lot of money for any household, but if you find yourself unfortunate enough to be at the bottom of the economic scale it becomes even more difficult to provide the basic essentials for that child to flourish.

“A lot of families, in reality, have very few choices. Some families have a disability, learning difficulty or mental health issue, some have to cope with all of these things as well as raising a child to the best of their abilities.

“Without fair access, children can quickly fall behind and the gap between what they and their peers can achieve grows ever wider. Enter the cost of living crisis and the cracks that were already there, become chasms that are swallowing families up.”

A headshot of Wayne Green, with the quote: "We need to act on housing, instead of MPs seeking to water down policies like evictions laws."

Wayne Green said:

“A wealth tax is needed. We need an asset tax. Once you earn more than £250,000 you pay less tax as you can afford to invest in assets and shares. If you had something like a 3 percentage point tax increase on offshore wealth, it could pay for so much – it could pay much of our national debt off.

“The very wealthiest people have millions or billions. There is an imbalance – we should be taxing the super rich and investing in this country long-term.”

“We need a better form of community tax. It does not work properly. And we need to act on housing, instead of MPs seeking to water down policies like eviction laws.”

Wayne had said he would be worried about the ending of the Household Support Fund, which he had said would be outrageous. In the Budget, it was extended by only six months.

A headshot of Mary Passeri with a quote reading: "I think the rich are going to keep on getting richer, but if you are on a low income it disproportionately badly affects you."

Mary Passeri said:

“I think the rich are going to keep on getting richer, but if you are on a low income it disproportionately badly affects you.”

Alisha Barton said:

“I think it will make no positive difference to me, and cutting National Insurance inherently means a cut to public services.”

Sydnie Corley said:

“What needs to really change is the difference in income when you try to get back into work, or into more work. I am part time and if I go over the income thresholds, I lose everything else suddenly.”

Contributors to this article are member of Church Action on Poverty’s Speaking Truth To Power programe.

  • Stef Benstead is advisor on disability and social security, and also the author of Second Class Citizens: The Treatment of Disabled People in Austerity Britain.
  • Tracy Porter is a trustee and digital inclusion advisor.
  • Wayne Green is advisor on unemployment, social security and policy.

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Silhouettes of eight people, against different coloured backgrounds

This is a guest series of stories that challenge and change. These are intentionally contrary stories that push back against negative ideas, and force us all to re-examine negative stigmas and stereotypes. They are longer than our usual blogs, and we encourage you to read them when you have the time to do so in full.

These stories are told by Stef Benstead, a social justice campaigner, Manchester Poverty Truth Commissioner, and an expert on the mistreatment of disabled people.

Meet Emma...

Emma is your ‘typical’ workless benefit claimant: overweight; in a power chair; all-but never worked.

She’s the kind of person who’s pointed out on the street as an exemplifier of all that’s wrong with Britain. The obesity epidemic; the eating of fast-food and processed food and sweets and ice creams; the lack of work ethic; the attitude that believes it’s right and better to take state money than to work.

The person who had children whilst on benefits, rather than wait to be able to afford them. The person who uses abortion as a birth control method. The person who fights like a tiger for her ‘entitlements’, but can’t keep a stable relationship.

Except that that’s not Emma’s story… That’s the narrative that rich and lazy people weave in their heads around people like Emma, because it’s easier than finding out the truth. 

Silhouettes of eight people, against different coloured backgrounds

Do not jump to conclusions

Finding out the truth would mean going to actually speak to people like Emma. 

It would mean refusing to make any assumptions about the reality behind the image, and refusing to pass on one’s imaginings as the ‘truth’ about so-and-so in a piece of faux-shocked gossip.

Sometimes I wonder if the reason middle- and upper-class people jump so easily to false conclusions about poor and struggling people is because they’re reflecting their own selfishness and greed onto a people who are actually less selfish and more community-minded than them. 

Why do so many judge falsely?

But that would be to ‘other’ the rich, and would be unfair.

Whilst there is data showing that richer people are more selfish and greedy, it isn’t right to assume that every rich person is inherently morally inferior and to be judged negatively.

Many may simply be ignorant, living as they do lives that are so divorced from the bottom half of the UK income or class scale. They simply don’t know what is going on in these other people’s lives, and for whatever reason many of them choose to judge these people falsely and negatively.

Seek the right narratives over the easy ones

It is easy to judge Emma from the outside. But judging her and writing her down as a skiver and feckless mother doesn’t make that pejorative narrative true.

It’s the easy narrative, because it lets the richer person off the hook for showing justice and generosity, and even allows us to kid ourselves that justice and generosity is to let this person suffer for their sins until they learn to do right. That’s exactly how God treats us, of course, and is why God had no problem when a person in great debt shows no mercy to someone in a little debt.

Meet the real Emma...

A red Holy Bible, on a wooden church pew

So let me introduce you to Emma. In her mid-thirties, she’s training in lay ministry as a youth worker as part of her training to become a vicar. 

With her knowledge of poverty combined with her acute mind, she’ll bring compassion and clarity to her role.
A silhouette shot of a church, with the setting sun visible through its steeple

Where many middle-class vicars have only their brain to draw on, Emma has personal experience and extensive knowledge of  what life is really like for many people. That invaluable insight is beginning to be recognised by the Church of England and other denominations.

She has two daughters, one a young adult and one in primary school. She has a sharp mind and a strong drive to be engaged and active. In periods where she has been unable to obtain work, she has engaged in lots of volunteering and various training and skills courses. These courses range from basic CV-writing, to life-skills, to crafts. Whatever was available at the time.

She has a back injury from an abusive husband who kicked her down the stairs. When the doctor told her she’d be in a wheelchair within a year, she didn’t want to believe the doctor about the ongoing deterioration of her spine.

But the doctor was right, and Emma now depends on her powerchair for more than occasional and short-distance mobility. She struggles with anorexia, and her body fights back by shifting to starvation mode and clinging on to calories. 

Emma: recovering from abuse

She has ADHD, autism and dyslexia. When she entered secondary school, she was functionally illiterate and yet still undiagnosed. Like many people with ADHD, Emma’s body is poor at telling her that it’s time for food, and this failure to eat regularly compounds the anorexia in her body’s insistence on its need to store rather than spend the calories it gets.

Emma had a difficult childhood. Her dad wasn’t around, but her mum worked as a cleaner and her step-dad worked in a paint factory. Both were binge alcoholics, leaving the children in the care of a babysitter whilst they socialised. That, of course, is an entirely normal and middle-class proceeding, and shouldn’t attract any censure. The problem was with the abusive parenting, which caused Emma to leave home at 17.

Emma: poorly supported in school

A stock posed image of a pupil in a classroom, writing at a desk.

Emma struggled at school, both because of bullying and because her dyslexia meant she couldn’t keep up with lessons. She enjoyed maths, but other lessons were challenging. It wasn’t until secondary school that anyone paid enough attention or care to get her assessed and diagnosed, and she was then given an amanuensis to help her in her work. In this way, she was able to pass GCSEs in maths, science and English.

After school, Emma signed up to train as a mechanic. Unfortunately, she had undiagnosed epilepsy, and was experiencing absence seizures. To the garage, the petit mals, coupled with her poor social skills and limited literacy, made her look like a slacker and scrounger. They fired her within a year.

Facing homelessness

Emma was still being abused at home by her mum. When she lost her mechanics position, she left her mother’s house. She stayed for a week with her sister, but her sister was also abusive. Emma was able instead to get a place at a hostel, a few miles away from where she had been brought up.

For middle-class people used to the luxury of cars, this may sound like living in one’s home area. For people with limited means to travel, being separated from your community like that is a big deal.

Emma joined what was a youth training programme, giving her support in CV-writing; confidence building; budgeting; household management; and travel. This was helpful for her, with her learning difficulties and relatively limited education. But it wasn’t on-the-job training. Whilst she was on the programme, she also worked part-time as a cleaner, to top-up the financial support she received as part of the programme.

Facing rejection and unhappiness

Stock image of church windows

Emma is a bright woman. But her learning difficulties hid this from the casual observer, and blocked her from getting any meaningful job training. The constant rejections were demoralising and dispiriting. The worst was when she was rejected for vicar training, on the grounds that she would not be able to handle the work. She felt that God had given up on her as well as the rest of the world.

She wasn’t receiving anything to help her maximise her career, fulfilment or earnings potential.

Nor was she receiving anything to help her process the abuse she had grown up with. 

Consequently, she was both bored and desperately unhappy. She entered a time of self-destruction, wanting to die and managing the despair with dating, drink, and drugs.

Illness, pregnancy and false accusations

Emma was taking contraception, but she didn’t know that epilepsy medication interferes with the efficacy of contraceptives. She became pregnant. The pregnancy drew her to the attention of social services. She was found a place in a mother-and-baby home, where she was able to live for two years. When her baby reached six months, she was eligible for a place on social services nursery.

This allowed Emma to engage in training and volunteering. But baby caught impetigo from nursery – and Emma was falsely accused of neglect and of burning her child, because impetigo can look like burns.

Emma stopped her drinking and drugs when she became pregnant, and has stayed away ever since. But her learning difficulties and epilepsy made her an unfavourable mother in social services’ eyes.

This was a time when people with learning disabilities were still being sterilised, and Emma’s own sister had undergone a court-ordered sterilisation. Emma had also struggled with physical illness during her pregnancy.

When contraception failed again and Emma became pregnant for a second time, with her baby only three months’ old, social services told her she could have either the current baby or the pregnancy, but not both. If Emma continued with the pregnancy, they would take her three-month-old away, and they would likely also take the new baby when it was born.

Emma asked if she could carry the new baby to term and then have it adopted, but was told no. If she went with that plan – or any plan that involved continuing the pregnancy – her three-month-old would be removed.

This command may in part have reflected Emma’s physical health difficulties with her first and her now second pregnancy. But it is telling that she was never offered support to keep her pregnancy, and her three-month-old, even to give the new baby up for adoption. Emma was compelled to have an abortion.

Navigating the benefits labyrinth

Emma didn’t know what benefits she was entitled to, so only claimed disability benefits for her epilepsy, income support as a young mother, and child benefit. She didn’t know she should also have been getting child tax credit. When the DWP finally realised that Emma’s claim for child benefit was also in effect a claim for child tax credit, they paid her over £4000 for a year’s backpay. It is not at all clear that the DWP would be so fair today.

At the same time, Emma was no scrounger. She was no mythical ‘teenage mum’, having a baby in order to avoid work. Raising a young child is hard work and also often boring, monotonous and isolating. Emma had had no intention of being a mother at 19; she wanted to work and train and improve herself. She wanted a career and a life and money to live off. Still, having a child helped to save Emma’s life.

A close-up of a camera lens

Finding home, purpose and training

Boring as it often was, it helped her to live with her memories of her own abusive childhood and the long-term impacts on her own wellbeing and relationships.

After two years, Emma was offered a social house. Whilst her child was still young, she went on a number of training classes. Mostly these were still low- or non-competitive skills, like cooking or photography, which might stave off her boredom but didn’t help with getting a job.

Eventually, though, she was offered a place to train as a peer educator in sexual health and wellbeing. For several years, this was her work. And then the Conservatives came back into power, in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Over a period of years, with much striving, and with some help from church (the mother-and-baby unit) and state (social housing, nursery place from six months, access to training, and a meagre but better-than-nothing income), Emma had started to build herself a life.

She had a stable job that she enjoyed and was good at, and therefore had a future. And then the Government – in the name of Big Society and helping people to get out of poverty and into work – pulled it all away from her. They cut funding to the programme in which Emma worked, and her job was removed. 

Stock image of a life-ring

Lifelines ripped away

Emma’s job had previously been used as a reason to take her disability benefits away from her.

Now she had neither benefits nor a job. Yet she’d still had epilepsy, dyslexia, ADHD and complex PTSD the whole time.

She had to start again. Back on benefits; back to struggling; back to insufficient money through no fault of her own. Eventually, she became one of many who had to turn to foodbanks to survive.

The foodbank was run by a local church. Going to the foodbank encouraged Emma to start going to church again, after turning away from faith as a young adult. The church has supported her since that time, and it is because of that that she is now training to be a vicar.

Like with everyone, what helps Emma’s life is not punishment but support. Support for housing, income, childcare and training is what got her her job. The housing, income and childcare support were all vital to give Emma the space to engage in training that led to her job. Later, it was the support of foodbanks that helped Emma find community that eventually led to her training to be a vicar.

What you didn't see at first: the care, the compassion, the sharp mind and more

Conversely, the withdrawal of support is harmful. The cuts made by the Conservative Governments after 2010 caused Emma to lose her job. Her health problems meant it was extremely difficult for her to obtain new work, and it has taken years from when she first left the peer educator role before starting vicar training. Those years could have been more fruitful if cuts had not been made.

From the outside, Emma may look like the epitome of the sickness claimant who is ‘only’ there because of obesity. But that’s because all you can see from the outside is the obesity. You can’t see the spinal damage, the complex PTSD, the dyslexia or the ADHD. Equally, you can’t see the sharp mind or the depth and breadth of experience and knowledge that Emma has. You can’t see her compassion, her care, and her sense of fun. You can’t see the real person and her inherent value.

What you can know, however, is that you should never judge by the outside.

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Mt Tabor Methodist Church in Sheffield, with a "Neighbourhood Voices" logo superimposed.

Welcome to the first of our new Neighbourhood Voices stories, featuring people in north Sheffield.

Mt Tabor Methodist Church in Sheffield, with a "Neighbourhood Voices" logo superimposed.

We’re at Parson Cross in Sheffield, on a Tuesday morning.

Mt Tabor Methodist Church opens its doors to the community most days of the week, providing food, friendship and warmth.

Tuesday in particular is a food-focused day. There’s a social cafe, a light lunch, and an evening meal, and people who need some bits and bobs to take away can do so.

Regulars and volunteers know the community inside out, and know what has changed – and what needs to change. 

A notice board with various pieces of art and food-related notices

Meet Bryan...

“I have been coming here for 12 years. I like coming here because I know people, and everyone is all right with you here, and you can have a chat and a drink and a bite to eat.

“I do the community allotment as well on Wednesdays. We grow lots of veg, and share it out and what’s left we bring here. I enjoy the allotment group, because you can see from when you’ve planted the seeds right til it grows, and then harvesting.

“It’s a great feeling. You feel achievement. It’s a real wonder. I just love growing stuff. I had my own allotment, but it was too much on my own, so I joined the community allotment. I keep myself to myself, apart from with the people here, and I go to a homeless project once a week, because I have been homeless, and I have a chat and a drink and a game of pool there. 

Can you tell us about Parson Cross? What’s good, what’s not so good? What does it need?

“Parson Cross needs a youth club for young people to go to. When I was younger, we had youth clubs, and when you left school if you didn’t have a job there were youth training schemes (YTS), and they were fantastic. They ought to bring things like that back, we need more support for young people.

“I want people in the election to give young people a bit of a helping hand, help them get on.”

How have things changed in the past year or so?

 

“When I do a bit of shopping, everything has gone up, hasn’t it? Just… everything. I got my cost of living payment today, and I am trying to save it for as long as I can. 

“I wouldn’t say I live “on the breadline” but I’m on benefits, and I have to make it stretch as far as I can. It’s harder and harder.

 

“We need more work here. More jobs for people. There are not enough jobs, not enough secure jobs or YTSs or apprenticeships for people. It’s a vicious cycle, with a lack of opportunities, so people struggle more.”

Bryan is not alone in coming in for community as well as for the food. One of the volunteers says: “A lot of people come here looking for company. People enjoy coming here. With the meal in the evening, there are some people who need the meal and some who are financially able to support themselves but who really cherish having a meal with other people.”

Many projects cite the importance of such community. Food is sometimes what first brings people in, but it’s the sense of community that encourages people to stay. In 2023, LIFE in York interviewed dozens of people at the city’s many food projects, and found connection was one of the most valued features. Similarly, 74% of Your Local Pantry members say they feel more connected to their community, and 66% have made new friends.

I want people to show who they really are, and to make things better

Another regular at Parson Cross tells us:

“The food here is very good, but it’s also about community. I’ve been coming here since last March; I live about 20 minutes away. One of the others here introduced me to it. I come for the sandwiches and sometimes the bits of food to take away.

“Before I came here, I was on my own all the time and it’s not nice being on your own all the time. I was not eating at all because I have had problems with drinking, but this has helped me cut down.

“This is one of the best things in this community. There are a few other places like this as well, that help with loneliness and isolation.

“Parson Cross has changed a lot in my time – half for the better, half not. There is a lot of crime to sort out.

“In the election, I just want people to show who they really are and to make things better.”

Meet Jean...

“I come here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I come to talk to people and it puts me on the right track, listening to this lot! It stops me thinking things that I don’t want to. 

“I have been coming for a few years, maybe five years. I was born and bred in Nottingham and my late husband Mel was from Huddersfield, but we lived in Sheffield so it was only an hour from each family. I’ve lived in Sheffield 27 years now. 

“Sometimes I’m a bit down and feel the whole world has gone to pieces, but I come in for company and to talk to people, and I help out sometimes. I sometimes come in for the art or craft as well. And a few of them play music which is good. A couple of us go to the Wise Old Owls meetings at Hillsborough once a month as well, but we pay for that.

“The first time I came here I only stayed ten minutes, but I started coming back. 

“Sheffield has its good points. It’s got a lot of places you can go for food and shopping, and it’s got the speedway, and the market is good. But it has problems too. It’s been getting harder with prices. Budgeting is harder and harder. Everything is up, and I am diabetic and have to have certain things. It’s hard.

“This place is different to others. It’s a food hub. Some places, you have to put your name down or have a referral to get food, but not here.”

The wider neighbourhood

The activities at Mt Tabor are coordinated by Parson Cross Initiative, a charity supported by the church. Nick Waterfield is pioneer minister. Here’s what he says:

Jonathan Buckley lives in the neighbourhood and is one of the charity’s trustees. 

A headshot of Jonathan Buckley

He says: “There have been issues of poverty here for 80 to 90 years. The local primary school has 60% of children on pupil premium, and the other 40% are not wealthy either. There have been new estates built, but two thirds of people are on the breadline. A lot of people here feel that to succeed means to move away, and that takes the money elsewhere.

“Increasing Universal Credit and other benefit levels would help. A lot of voluntary service stuff is hard to maintain because there are fewer volunteers than maybe 30 or 40 years ago. There was a Boys Brigade here, but it shut due to a lack of volunteers. There has been Scouts, but not much else for kids. 

“For us, there is a faith motivation to act, and also wanting better for the kids. There are good news stories. People do not hear those as often, but it’s about hearing and sharing good news stories.

“There are kids here achieving great grades and doing well, but it’s so much easier for people to share negative stories. We should share the good news stories with each other.

“What I cherish here is the community, like people coming here this morning, or coming to the art group. In some ways, people’s lives do not change much, but by coming here week on week, we see the community getting stronger. 

“For instance we’re doing two allotment sessions a week instead of one now, and more people are coming. And a local group of staff have said they want to do a coffee morning for us. And art students at a local school did their exhibition here. We see a lot of good community stuff.” 

What issues do you want to hear being discussed in the election campaign?

“We need realistic support for people who need it. There should be a basic minimum and they shouldn’t keep cutting. They should maybe expand the trial of Universal Basic Income. They should do less scaremongering and focus on positives. It would give people more dignity and more spending money. 

“Here, people spend money locally, so it would improve the local economy and support jobs. It would improve people’s livelihoods and the neighbourhood.

“The low benefit levels are a big issue for people around here. Reaching a realistic level of income is important for people. We need to see an uplift in benefit levels, and support the real Living Wage.

“I think young people need more investment in youth services focusing on places like this. In wealthier areas, people can afford to go to classes or clubs, but we need more investment in universal services for people who need it.

“So much has been cut for young people. Life needs to be more than English, maths and science. There are not enough funding for wider stuff. 

“There is a need to focus more on enabling people who are creative or sporting to pursue those, rather than pushing everything into English, maths and science. There are so many kids who struggle in a formal school setting, but in a different class or a smaller setting or a one-to-one session, they fly. So we need more investment for young people. 

“There is a financial cost but if we invest in schools and young people now, it reduces having to address issues and pay for other services down the line. Equip people now.”

Pushed into hardship by rising prices and inadequate support

Over lunch, four women are waiting to pick up some food. Here’s a snapshot of their conversation:

“This is my third week here. Everything is about just, managing, with everything going up, and the cost of living. I am on my own now, and because I’m on a meter I have noticed my bills have jumped again since January. It’s gone up a lot. That has taken away food money, just for trying to keep warm.

“And that’s not having it warm all the time – I am sitting just in my kitchen, the one warm room.”

“Nobody should have to live in the cold like that.”

“I spoke to my gas company about keeping warm, because I’m asthmatic, and if it’s cold I start coughing. They said there were food banks I should go to for support! And food banks are running out of stuff.

“I’m paying £210 a month for gas and electric from the same company. 

“Food banks are good and it’s good to meet people, but they have to rely on donations.” 

“I feel so sorry for people with children. When you have not got money for food, what do you do? - You cannot give a child fish fingers every day. The cost of living is up and prices are not coming down."

“I was given my notice of my job ending last October. I went through a consultation, and I was made redundant. So I went to ask how to go about claiming benefits.

“I’d never claimed benefits before and went in to ask. They said my redundancy pay was income, so I wouldn’t be eligible. When that ran out, I went back again and they said I had been given mis-information the first time, so I could put in a backdated claim. But then I was rejected because they said I should have formally applied in the October!

“Now, I owe thousands and thousands of pounds to people. We are robbing Peter to pay Paul, and then robbing Paul again to pay Peter. 

“Places like this go some way to helping, but we shouldn’t have to be reliant on charity for food.

“The cost of food is going up, benefits are effectively goin down, people are losing their jobs, and everyone is falling and having to rely on things like this, because they cannot afford to live.

“What we need is for people to be able to afford food. It’s good that people support charity, but we shouldn’t be in this crisis and having to rely on it. We should be able to live in the economy.

“Even at the supermarkets, you are rationed – they say you can only buy so many of their own brand items, and if you have a big household, it’s impossible sometimes.”

Could you host a Neighbourhood Voices conversation in 2024? Find the toolkit here:

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Silhouettes of eight people, against different coloured backgrounds

Welcome to our new guest series, of stories that challenge and change. These are intentionally contrary stories that push back against negative ideas, and force us all to re-examine negative stigmas and stereotypes. They are longer than our usual blogs, and we encourage you to read them when you have the time to do so in full.

These stories are told by Stef Benstead, a social justice campaigner, Manchester Poverty Truth Commissioner, and an expert on the mistreatment of disabled people.

Meet Alan...

Alan is the quintessential benefit scrounger. When a work coach or jobcentre staff member tells you they can identify the scroungers and malingerers, it’s Alan they’re talking about. They’re confident in their assessment that this guy is never going to want to contribute to society. He’s just thinking about how to score and how to get money to score.

As soon as Alan walks into a jobcentre, all the staff know what he is, even if they’ve never seen him before. They see it in the way he walks, the way he stands, in his choice of clothes and haircut. They know he’s on drugs and is high right that moment.

A stock image of a JobCentre Plus sign

When the work coach interview starts, the confirmation continues. Alan has been sanctioned before. In fact, he’s on a three-month sanction right now. He doesn’t care, though, because the rental component of his benefits goes straight to his hostel landlord, so he needn’t worry about eviction. 

The work coach isn’t interested in how Alan will survive. How is he buying his food, paying his bills, or using the bus?

The options are limited. Perhaps Alan has savings, though that is unlikely; they’d have been spent on drugs by now. Perhaps friends or family or charity are bailing him out, though the work coach hopes not: they’d be undermining the sanction. 

Maybe Alan is borrowing from loan sharks, which will present acute problems later, but might at least reinforce the punitive intention of the sanction. A final option is that Alan is working on the side, taking cash in hand without declaring it to the DWP. The work coach would not be surprised, although she also believes that Alan has no work ethic.

Sanctions: designed to punish

Aerial view of Houses of Parliament

Whatever way Alan is surviving, the DWP’s approach suggests they don’t really want him to do it. The point of the sanction is to punish Alan into socially-conformable behaviour by leaving him no other option. The message from the top is that the way to get Alan off drugs and into work is to punish his behaviour until he sees sense. The fact that it doesn’t seem to be working that way doesn’t matter.

So when the work coach queries why Alan didn’t apply for a particular job, she’s not really interested. It will be a made-up reason, maybe borrowed from someone else who said it had worked. She sees no valid reason to turn down a job one is physically capable of doing. She knows, and Alan knows, that a further sanction will now be applied but Alan doesn’t seem to care, which just confirms the work coach in her judgment of him.

Now meet Ben

Then there’s Ben. He had successfully held a range of jobs, including running a second-hand store on a busy street. He is also good with his hands and worked as a car mechanic until a friend introduced him to a swimming pool company where he got a job as a filtration engineer.

It wasn’t easy and involved a lot of travel, but he loved that job, working all across the country in schools and for councils and for private buyers. He worked on the lido at Oxford and at the eight pools built for the 2012 Olympics. 

After that, the trouble started. Ben was made redundant. It’s not clear why it was Ben, given that he’d been with the company for five years. The ‘last in, first out’ principle should have protected him relative to the newbies taken on for the Olympic Games. But it was a Scottish company, and Ben wonders if they favoured Scottish people.

When Ben lost his job, his landlord served an immediate eviction notice, without even giving Ben a chance to look for work or claim for social security. 

There weren’t even any rent arrears, but Ben didn’t want to cause trouble for his house-mates, so he left by the date on the eviction notice. 

Ben had nowhere to go. After 40 years of work, he had no knowledge of the benefits system or what to do when homeless.

Once, walking back from visiting friends, he was gripped by a suicidal impulse. Swinging his leg over the fence to jump from the footbridge to the motorway, he survived only because the friend with him fought him back. Ben didn’t speak to that friend for two years. It was so hard to still be alive, that being grateful was impossible.

Forced into awful settings

After two months of sofa-surfing, Ben got a place in a hostel – not through the council or the Jobcentre, but through word-of-mouth from another resident. It was a nasty hostel – which is standard for the sector – and many, even most, of the residents at any one time were drug users.

Ben had used cannabis recreationally in the past, at weekends with friends. It hadn’t become a problem for him, any more than alcohol becomes a problem for most drinkers. But in the hostel, drug use – and heavier drugs than cannabis – was the only social activity available and the only way to make friends.

Ben didn’t have many friends and was deeply depressed. Making friends and surviving the sudden penury and misery was important. Drugs were the only answer being offered. In his situation, it was almost a rational choice. Certainly, it was an emotional one. And emotions are powerful beasts, heavily affected by our circumstances.

So Ben ended up with an addiction to crack cocaine and spice. This was unfortunate, because now that he had a registered address he was able to claim benefits and start to have an income and means to live again. It should – if the benefits had been reasonable and Ben’s living accommodation decent – have been the opportunity to get back on track. Instead, Ben was still depressed, in circumstances barely if at all above destitution – and with a new addiction.

Pushed into crisis

Drugs change people’s emotions and attitudes; that’s why people take them. If they didn’t create a high, a release from worry, or a sense of being above the world and its cares, then they wouldn’t be sought after or addictive.

So when Ben took cocaine or spice to relieve depression or keep in with his hostel mates, it also created a devil-may-care attitude, unconducive to following pointless, or downright unhelpful or dangerous jobcentre commands. Neither the high of the drugs nor the depression were likely to help Ben return to stable, full-time work. They certainly hindered any attempts to look for work.

Ben was sanctioned.

Stock image of a hospital 'emergency' sign

Some time later, Ben found himself in hospital. Broken by the use of drugs and attempts to find work, his body had collapsed under him. He’d been in a coma for seven days.

The shock helped Ben want to turn his life around. Crucially, he was also finally offered a council flat, where he still is now. This gave him the break he needed. It is near impossible to withstand the pull to drugs when you are living in a squalid hostel and the only mates around you are taking drugs. 

So Ben got lucky. He was also able to find a rehab clinic to attend every evening. He was still taking spice, and the staff knew it, but he was cutting down and had cut out the cocaine. He was taking steps to get his life back together.

But the Jobcentre still didn’t help. They saw him as a drug-addict; a scrounger; no different from Alan. It was horrendous. He was trying to get off drugs by attending rehab each evening, by no longer taking cocaine and reducing his use of spice, and capitalising on the opportunity he was given by getting a council flat.

But the Jobcentre wasn’t helping. Instead, Ben says: 

“It was like they were stood on me shoulders keeping me under water, like they’re trying to drown me.”​

————  Ben  ————

Ben: They're trying to force me into hard positions

His illness – his depression, his despair, his drug addiction that he was trying to get rid of – meant nothing to the Jobcentre other than as proof that he was a scrounger to be pushed and punished, constantly.

On one occasion he was told to apply for a job that involved working a till. Ben was trying to beat his drug addiction, but he hadn’t beaten it yet and he knew he wasn’t perfect or beyond temptation. To stand at a till, eight hours a day, five days a week, desperate for money to buy drugs, was a temptation that he was not confident he could consistently withstand.

He said this to the Jobcentre work coach. His recognition of his own weaknesses and his desire to overcome them was seen as irresponsibility. He was sanctioned.

Ben’s own thoughts and feelings didn’t matter. He says: “Well, at this moment in time, I’m taking drugs every day. I’m going to dip that till. I know I’m gonna dip that till because that’s where my head is.

“And I didn’t want to do that because it’s summat I’ve never done. But knowing where I am, I don’t want to be put in a situation where it’s gonna cause more anxiety for me because I’m stressed out looking at all this money daily. They’re trying to force me into these positions and sanction me. It was really, really hard.”

Ben’s life in his council flat was really lonely, so to fill his days, he would sit in a park. In a park, he would not take spice openly; he would wait until people weren’t around, and this desire to conceal his habit naturally reduced his consumption. Sitting in a park was also Ben’s most social interaction. Sometimes just seeing people walk by was a comforting reminder that there were other people in the world.

Ben: finding limited help

Stock image: letter tiles spelling 'support'

Ben was able to get help from a local charity, with his benefit claims and to his debt (no-one had told him either that he needed to pay council tax while staying in the hostel, nor how to do so, nor that he could claim council tax support). He started volunteering with the charity, and progressed into paid work at another charity.

When the manager at that charity left, he acted as interim manager. But when he applied for the permanent position, he was told he wasn’t dynamic enough. (This is a man who went on ‘Naked Attraction’!) He’s up for a laugh and joke, and is a fun and gregarious person who is a pleasure to be around. His 40-year work history has given him a solid range of skills, including in management and running shops. He applied three more times for similar positions with that chain, whilst continuing to work as interim manager. But each time he was rejected.

The fourth rejection hit him really hard. He was doing the job, yet kept being refused the permanent position. It was deeply disheartening, and undermined his self-confidence in his ability to put his past behind him. He had to take sick leave for a few months.

He hoped to find a different job, but didn’t get one, so had to return to the store that didn’t want him. When he did get a job with a different company, he was let go after the probationary period for not being good enough with computers.

Ben is now in debt again, because of losing his job. The jobcentre are currently being kind, because he isn’t on drugs (they don’t know about his history) and they can see that he is looking for work. He could seek early retirement, but he wants to work.

He wants the structure, the independence, the extra money. He doesn’t want to depend on state hand-outs or have to seek food parcels to survive, but he is in a perilous situation, physically and financially. If winter comes before he is offered a job, it is hard to see how he will get by.

Ben & Alan: similar paths, similar solutions

Ben and Alan are similar people. But where Alan might be termed a member of the ‘underclass’ for lacking a work ethic and choosing to stay on drugs, Ben’s situation was a response to the circumstances imposed by outside forces – a change in the economy; his boss’s decision to make him redundant; his landlord’s decision to kick him out; the Government’s failure to catch people when society drops them or to ensure a liveable income during jobsearch.

Alan is the kind of person who makes the middle-class scared of the council estate and deprived inner-city wards.

They worry about his behaviour and attitude, and whether they’re at risk of attack and to what extent he is gaming the system. Ben, on the other hand, is not at bottom distinguishable from the working class. He shares their work ethic and commitment to providing for oneself, and takes responsibility – even at the cost of benefit sanctions – for keeping himself away from drugs. Alan should be punished; Ben should be helped.

The problem is that Ben and Alan are the same people. One person is who you see from the outside: the ‘scrounger’. The other is the person on the inside, trying to survive in horrendously challenging circumstances. One is the superficial person who the government insists needs to be punished. The other is the real person, helped by support but held down by sanction.

The lives and truths we don't see

Silhouettes of eight people, against different coloured backgrounds

The complexities of our lives cannot be broken down into stereotypes. Those of us who have never been in the sort of situation that Alan/Ben experienced will always struggle, to the point of impossibility, to understand the emotions and the survival decisions required. Those of us who have come out of such situations risk false confidence in our own contribution to the escape, and a concomitant false scorn for those still in it.

But what I find most interesting is that ultimately, whatever you think of Alan/Ben, the question about how to respond to is still answered in the same way.

Punishment did not push Alan/Ben into ‘right’ behaviour; it pushed him further down into desperation. What he needed, however much his situation was his own fault or the fault of others and structural factors, was support.

He needed an exit from the environment he was living in; a stable life with stable and sufficient finances; and a community around him to give him joy, purpose and a reason to keep living. It was this support that enabled Alan/Ben to start and maintain efforts to stop taking drugs,. It is the loss of this support, in the loss of his job and the risk of homelessness if he cannot pay his rent, that could push him back into drug-seeking.

The answer to drug addiction, homelessness and unemployment is not punishment, but help. Until the Government and political parties realise this, all we will get is the continuation of policies that make desperate people’s lives much worse, harming both them and wider society.

The answer to drug addiction, homelessness and unemployment is not punishment, but help.

Until the Government and political parties realise this, all we will get is the continuation of policies that make desperate people’s lives much worse, harming both them and wider society.

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Addressing poverty with lived experience: the APLE Collective

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Mary: tackling poverty via radio, art and a newfound resolve

Poems from the Iona Community 2022

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Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield 2023 AGM

An introduction to Self-Reliant Groups for Churches

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Budget 2023: a precious chance to bridge the rich-poor divide

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Niall Cooper's headshot, alongside the Yorkshire Post and Let's End Poverty logos.

This year is a chance to reassert what we want for the country. The huge majority of us want to end poverty… Niall Cooper says: Let’s make ourselves heard!

This week, I have had the privilege of speaking with community activists and advocates from across the country.

Colleagues and I have been in workshops and conversations with people from all over England – from York and Halifax in Yorkshire, to Lewes and Epsom in the south, to Liverpool and Manchester across the Pennines.

A signpost pointing forward to "Hope" in large letters, with "despair" in smaller text pointing the opposite way

I’ve been struck time and again by their compassion for their communities, but above all by their hope for change.

In this General Election year, there is hope that the voices that have long been drowned out might be heard and heeded, and that change can start happening.

Might this be the year when politicians take seriously the cost of living scandal that has caused millions more people to be pushed into poverty across the UK? 

More than that, might it be the year when they recapture ambition and make ending UK poverty a real priority? 

And might it be the year when politicians of all parties remember the UK’s international commitments, and renew our efforts to at least halve global poverty by 2030?

I believe it can, and the good news is we can all play our part. I’m buoyed by that knowledge, and by the powerful pockets of belief and resolve that I see in so many communities.

Politicians don't lead - they follow

A 'polling station' sign

Over the coming months, thousands of General Election candidates will be seeking votes, and should be asking us what we want. 

The theologian Jim Wallis jokes that you can always spot a politician walking down the street, because they have their finger in the air, to test which way the wind is blowing.

There is truth in that. The American activist and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the same: “People think of elected office as being a leadership position, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s a position of following, because oftentimes it’s only when things are made politically expedient, or politically inconvenient to disagree with, that you actually start seeing this movement happen.”

Let's channel the public compassion

If that’s the case, then our challenge is to change the prevailing political winds, to harness and articulate the public will so clearly and powerfully that it becomes irresistible.

The exciting thing about that is that we are all powerful. We can all play a part – whether by sending a postcard, email or handwritten letter to our MPs or prospective MPs, mobilising the groups we belong to, or seeking out the positive, hope-filled conversations, rather than being drawn into divisive rhetoric.

A weather vane in the shape of a sailing ship

Movements always change the wind

Popular movements throughout history have always changed the wind. Countless small actions – gutsy gusts by individual people – have combined into powerful storms that swept away injustices and allowed brighter days to dawn. We saw progress that way in the civil rights movement in the last century, and in campaigns for marriage equality in this country in recent years.

Many conversations in the election season will focus only on individual policy proposals. Indeed, there are some excellent campaigns calling for very specific changes, such as the Everyday Essentials campaign backed by Joseph Rowntree Foundation and The Trussell Trust.

9 in 10 Brits want more to be done to tackle poverty

But if we don’t speak up about what we truly want as a society, about our long-term national aspirations, then politicians will keep delaying action on tackling poverty.

Both main parties have said they won’t commit to more public investment in the short-term. If we shrug our shoulders, then our politicians will keep prioritising easier, shorter-term actions that may deal temporarily with some symptoms of poverty, but never tackle it at the root.

That is not what the country wants. None of us is happy seeing our neighbours or fellow citizens struggling in poverty, locked out of the places and opportunities that should belong to us all. Polling has shown deep unease with the level of inequality in the UK.  Almost nine in ten Brits want more to be done to tackle poverty.

Poverty: an outrage and a scandal

Poverty is an outrage, and it is a consequence of political choices and inactions. Powerful politicians have overlooked poverty’s root causes for far too long. They have allowed this current cost of living scandal to harm countless lives. And around the world, poverty prevents millions of individuals and communities from fulfilling their potential.

The good news is that as we start 2024, a growing number of people and organisations across the country are coming together as part of Let’s End Poverty, a broad campaign that seeks to ensure ending poverty is an issue for whoever is elected in the coming General Election. 

Anyone aspiring to represent us needs to make tackling poverty a priority. In line with our existing commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, this should include setting out clear plans to eradicate extreme poverty and reduce overall poverty by at least half, in both the UK and globally by 2030. 

We have the power!

The public will is there. Let’s now harness that as the wind in the sails of change.

We have the power to create this change, especially in an election year. 

What might happen if every church or organisation that has spent the past few years supporting foodbanks and other projects to meet the immediate needs in our communities began speaking up? 

What might happen if every candidate on the campaign trail was repeatedly questioned about where poverty stood on their list of priorities?

What might happen if every candidate received 100, 200, even 500 postcards from potential voters, saying: “I want to end poverty and I want you to make it a priority.”

  • We would start to see, and be, the winds of change. 
  • We would change what the political parties saw as priorities. 
  • We would start to shift how much prominence the next Government gave to tackling poverty. 
  • And we would change the country for the better. 

Let’s find out!

A version of this article is published in The Yorkshire Post on 26th January 2024. 

Niall Cooper is chief executive of Church Action on Poverty.

 

3 quick actions...

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Are we close to seeing a landmark legal change?

For the past few years, growing numbers of people and groups have been calling for a legal change in the UK, which could make a huge difference to the way big decisions are made.

Section 1 of the Equality Act says public authorities should consider how their policies and key decisions will increase or decrease inequalities. This is called the ‘socioeconomic duty’ – but it has never been enacted nationally, so councils and Government departments are not yet bound by it.

Change may be imminent – but it’s vital that it is done properly.

A lengthy campaign

Poverty2Solutions, a coalition of grassroots groups and academic expertise, launched its campaign on the issue in 2019, and has helped develop a good practice guide for councils. 

It has called on successive Governments to “do your duty for equality” by making the duty legal.

The group calls for: 

  • Enactment of the socioeconomic duty under section 1 of the Equality Act.
  • Safeguarding the intention of the duty by ensuring guidance on best practice implementation and monitoring is developed in partnership with people who have lived experience of socio-economic disadvantage.

Poverty2Solutions says: “We are determined to break through outdated policy development approaches by using participatory methods that prioritise people at the core.”

Potential for change

Labour has indicated it will enact the duty if it wins the next Election.

Poverty2Solutions says: “We welcome the commitments in the Labour Party’s policy handbook to ‘enact the socioeconomic duty under section 1 of the Equality Act’ and embrace the positive development that would create a legal imperative for public authorities to pay ‘due regard’ to the desirability of reducing the inequalities caused by socio-economic disadvantage and poverty in their policy making and budgetary decisions.

“This would help to drive forward better policies and services and ultimately create a fairer society. 

“Simply passing the duty into law, however, will not in itself lead to better policy-making and fairer outcomes. This would simply be the first step in a longer and more ambitious journey.

“We believe that in order to ensure the duty has the transformative approach intended by the spirit of the law, it is crucial that guidance on best practice implementation and monitoring is developed in partnership with people who have lived experience of socio-economic disadvantage.”

Meaningful change, not box-ticking

The group says the duty should lead to meaningful changes in approach, rather than “tick-box exercises”, and says partnership work on developing the duty should include some key principles: 

  • Recognising that the knowledge about how best to enact the duty is held in communities who have lived experience of socio-economic disadvantage.
  • Understanding that meaningful involvement is not about gathering a thousand stories, but about understanding the collective experience, truthfully represented.
  • Accepting that real success comes when there is a bringing together of different types of expertise (lived experience and other expertise such as statistical analysis or policy knowledge) through collaboration and co-production. 

Poverty2Solutions is stepping up its work on this issue this year. To contact the group or find out more, visit www.poverty2solutions.org/

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A pen drawning of Portobello Beach in Edinburgh, by Don from Leith Pantry

Your Local Pantries are making an amazing difference to people’s lives, in all four nations of the UK.

From Portadown to Portsmouth, Edinburgh to Ebbw Vale, Pantries are bringing people together around food and helping people forge friendships and freedom, to live more full lives.

Pantries are about so much more than food.

We were delighted recently to chat to Donald, a member at Leith Pantry in Edinburgh and a talented artist.

Some of his pictures are now on display in the Pantry, for members and volunteers to enjoy.

A pen drawning of the church that houses Leith Pantry, by Pantry member Don

Donald, who is 66 and recently retired, says:

“I’ve been painting and drawing my whole life. I worked in graphic design at first, then in advertising, in Edinburgh then London then Amsterdam.

“Unfortunately, throughout my life, I have had mental health issues based on my childhood. I have suffered depression really badly.

“About six years ago, I was staying in Holland got really depressed and ended up homeless. I ended up back in Edinburgh and needing to use the food bank. And then they told me about the Pantry.

“I joined just as it was opening a year or so ago, and it was really nice. I go every week. The free vegetables and fruit is great. I’m on a limited income, so I was buying processed food as it’s cheaper, but it’s not as good for you.

“Since joining, I’ve been feeling a bit better and I have been off my medication for the first time in six years.

“It’s improved my diet and I have finally been getting good treatment from the NHS.

“A big part of that improvement has been thanks to Leith Pantry.

“I wanted to give something back, and what I do best is drawing and painting. So I brought a picture in one day and the manager Ann liked it, and now there are five or six on the walls – some of scenes in Leith and Edinburgh, and one of the church where the Pantry is. 

A bright painting of Leith Links, by Don from Leith Pantry

“The Pantry contributed to me feeling better and being able to do my art again, and that in turn helps my mood further.

“I went to the food bank first, but at the Pantry you have choice, which is important. You can choose what you want.

“You also get the good social contacts. It’s well run and they’re always very cheery and I look forward to it every week.”

83% of Your Local Pantry members say membership has been good for their mental health
A blue bunting flag with the Coop and Your Local Pantry logos
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A still from a hand-drawn video, showing people crossing a bridge, holding a banner that says "Tackling root causes of poverty"

Five new trustees have joined the council of management of Church Action on Poverty, bringing fresh skills, insights, ideas and dedication to the organisation.

A still from a hand-drawn video, showing people crossing a bridge, holding a banner that says "Tackling root causes of poverty"

All five were elected at our recent 2023 AGM. This blog gives you a quick introduction, and outlines their and other trustees’ role.

The new trustees are:

Rich Jones from Greater Manchester

Rich is a multi-award winning social entrepreneur who brings with him 20 years of extensive experience in the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector.

Rich has experience on the frontline, in leadership and in infrastructure consultancy within the charity sector.

Revd Amanda Mallen from Walsall

Amanda says: “I am from an impoverished background and have personal experience of financial poverty, and the emotional and mental poverty that goes along with it.

“I want to make a difference and try to do so in my own small way, engaging on a wider scale can only be a good thing. I feel I have come a long way and have something to say and something to offer those who are journeying through too.”

Ashleigh May from Halifax and Barking & Dagenham

Ashleigh says: “I have lived experience of poverty, and am very passionate to challenge all forms of oppression. I have over nine years of campaigning experience. I help to amplify the voices of the Black and Minority Ethnicity communities.”

Ashleigh lived in Barking & Dagenham but was relocated to Halifax, as the local council had been unable to rehouse her.

She co-runs an organisation called Mums On A Mission, which supports families and helps to strengthen community action, working in East London and West Yorkshire.

Ashleigh is part of Church Action on Poverty’s Speaking Truth To Power programme and recently told her story more fully here.

Martin Stringer from Kidderminster

Martin says: “Having undertaken five years of church-related community work in Manchester in  the 1990s, I spent over thirty years in highereducation, including leadership roles in the University of Birmingham and Swansea University. I have continued to research and work in inner-urban areas and am currently a consultant in higher education.”

Tracy Porter from Stoke

Tracy says: “I’ve known poverty for most of my life, in many of its ever changing forms, and the obstacles and barriers that poverty creates. 

“As I and my children got older, I started to look at what I could do to change how and why things are done. I signed so many petitions that were just rejected and had no effect whatsoever, few actually made any difference, and the difference was very small!  

“I had all but given up, when I found Expert Citizens, whom connected me with; The APLE Collective, Thrive Teesside, Church Action on Poverty, Christians Against Poverty, and All The Small Things. 

“The work I have been doing with these organisations have all been on variations of the same theme, as they have all been about different aspects of poverty. 

“I have also worked with various universities around the same themes, and at present am, working with Cardiff University’s Policy Team with The APLE Collective, we have been developing a workshop to gather data about reducing stigma. We have also organised and been invited to All-Party Parliamentary Groups, and we have been a part of research for health inequalities in data with The Ada Lovelace Foundation as peer researchers.”

Tracy is also part of the Speaking Truth To Power programme, and says: “It has been great to be involved with so many like minded, passionate and driven people, and I believe that together we can make meaningful change that will have a huge positive impact.”

What our trustees do

Church Action on Poverty’s trustees sit on the council of management, to oversee the governance of the charity. 

The council and management have worked over recent years to increase the number of trustees who have first-hand insights of UK poverty, and almost half of our trustees now do.

All of our work is rooted in the knowledge that no social issue can be fixed without the leadership and wisdom of people with direct experience of it. Our politics, media, business sectors and charity sectors would all be more informed and more effective if they were more accessible for people of all incomes and backgrounds, and Church Action on Poverty is pleased to be making progress in this way.

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Penny Walters outside Byker Community Association

Compassionate community campaigner, Penny Walters, has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Year Honours list.

The award is in recognition of her tireless and unstinting work in Byker in Newcastle, particularly during the pandemic.

Penny is a caring and inspiring social justice activist, who Church Action on Poverty has been privileged to work alongside in recent years. We’re delighted to congratulate her on the recognition she has received.

Congratulations Penny!

Niall Cooper, chief executive of Church Action on Poverty, said: “Penny’s commitment, tenacity and sincere desire to help improve society with her community is incredible to witness. She has supported so many people in recent years, and courageously spoken up locally and nationally to bring about a more just society. Congratulations Penny!”

Penny Walters outside Byker Community Association
Penny Walters outside Byker Community Association in 2021. Photo by Madeleine Penfold.

Penny: I've done a lot - and always for Byker

Penny was actively involved in the End Hunger UK campaign, the Food Power project, research into food experiences during the pandemic, and is now a member of the Speaking Truth To Power programme. In recent years, she has spoken in Parliament, on Channel 4 News, and in local and international media.

She says: “All the work I have done has always had Byker in mind. Even when I started doing Food Power and End Hunger UK, it was always with Byker in my mind.

“When this letter came through, I just looked at it and couldn’t believe it.”

Penny, Cath and Heather are interviewed for Channel 4 News.
Penny, her daughter Heather, and friend Cath, being interviewed for Channel 4 News in 2018

Penny: a community cuppa is better than fancy food

“All of the stuff I have done about food and poverty has always been voluntary. Every time I spoke out, or did a video or anything, it has been voluntary, time given free. People say thank you, of course, but this is really big, the icing on the cake.

“I am from County Durham and moved to Byker in 2017. I had got a job working in Byker in the church café, and then moved into Byker as well to be in the community.

“Feeding and eating with people who have very little is so much better than any fancy restaurant. You find that people are more open with you and more willing to talk to you and to talk about their problems and sort them out.

“We had a couple of real success stories, with people going on to get extra qualifications or overcome problems.

“One guy used to come in for a cup of tea and a natter, and he says it gave him his self worth back. He was able to get off his medication, and went back to doing his hobbies, all just from someone taking a little time to say ‘how are you doing? Have a cup of tea!’.

Penny Walters at Byker Community Association
Penny Walters prepares hot drinks in the kitchen of Byker Community Association in 2021. Photo by Madeleine Penfold.

Penny: Byker is a place of friendship and support

“The café had closed before covid, but we used the kitchen there to make meals during the pandemic. I was doing up to 50 meals a time, twice a week, and they’d go out in the mutual aid groups. It was something in the community, for the community.

“When Food Power started, that fitted in really nicely with all the other stuff I was doing in Byker. It showed that when you’re trying to change things, it’s not always a case of hitting your head against a brick wall. You have little steps forward and back as well, and we showed people what is achievable.

“Byker is classed as one of the deprived areas, but it is only really deprived of money. It is not deprived of friendship or people or community. It’s just deprived of money. People talk about Byker without having lived here, so they do not know it. 

“Byker is a place of friendship and support that is there if you need it. That is a really big thing – people who can help if you don’t know what to do, or suggest who to talk to.

“It does not matter to me who I work with; I’m working for the good of everybody. I don’t say I’ll only work with these people or those people. I will work with anybody if it is helpful.

“Charities and organisations need to remember to listen more, and remember that it doesn’t work to have tokenistic poor people. Listen and work with us. I’m very pleased to have been supported so well, whoever I have worked with.”

Penny says she hopes the recognition might help her dismantle some of the barriers that exist, and help her find fulfilling work again.

She says: “I would love to travel up and down the country with pans and stoves and go to community centres or schools that have facilities, and work with people to show what you can do with practically nothing. It would be about how to get the best out of food, how to grow things, how to cook, and it would be together with people.”

 

Penny Walters outside Byker Community Association

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