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News of an exciting new partnership... and a call for churches to re-immerse themselves in their community relationships.

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.

That quote by American author and activist Helen Keller is a timeless and vital message to anyone who wants to make change happen. None of us can achieve much by acting alone. But when we unite, the opportunities are huge.

As Church Action on Poverty this week turns 40, we look ahead with optimism. Not because of what we do ourselves, as one charity, but because of the larger, inspiring, tenacious and thriving movement that we are one part of, and the partnerships we cherish. 

A new partnership with Co-op

This week, we are particularly delighted to announce that we have signed a new national partnership agreement with Co-op, to help strengthen the voice and power of people in poverty. 

The Co-op will support a new Speaking Truth To Power programme and the growth and development of the Your Local Pantry network, enabling people on low incomes to start redressing Britain’s power imbalance and to have a greater impact over the decisions and systems that affect their lives.

A growing movement for change

We know that across the UK, there is a vast movement of wonderful people, proactive neighbourhoods, community organisations, residents’ associations, faith groups, charities, activists, campaigners and many others, working to improve everyday life. And it’s when we do so together, in partnership with people in poverty and across organisations, that we see the most remarkable results.

That’s why Church Action on Poverty’s task for the coming years is to focus on working with a wide array of partners to promote initiatives in which local people and communities struggling against poverty can come together, and take collective action to reclaim their own dignity, agency and power. In this way, we can together mitigate the impact of a further economic squeeze but also build a movement against poverty.

Some of our new partners will be very localised and relatively small: individual church congregations, or neighbourhood community groups. Others, like the Coop, are much larger. All can make a difference, and if you want your group or church to start having more impact, then start by looking at who you can partner with. 

Partnerships in practice

Here are some of the partnerships that we are going to be part of in the year ahead:

1: Poverty Truth Commissions

Poverty Truth Commissions bring together people with direct experience of poverty in a town or city, and decision-makers whose professional position enables them to quickly effect change. Everyone works together as equals over 18 months or so, to identify local solutions that will make a real difference. 

No individual commissioner could make informed and effective change happen on their own. But by working together, and focusing on what they can change, commissions can make a difference.

We are now working in partnership with the Poverty Truth Network, to help to set up more commissions around the country.

2: Speaking Truth To Power

The Speaking Truth To Power logo

Church Action on Poverty has a long history of supporting people whose voices had previously been drowned out, to ensure people with personal experience of poverty are heard by people in power.

We have now teamed up with local partners in Liverpool and London and with the Coop and Joseph Rowntree Foundation nationally, to develop a new programme launching this summer. This will support a new generation of activists, including people personally struggling against poverty, to further develop their skills and confidence to speak their own truths to power.

Being heard is not in itself enough, however. We want the truths people speak to have an impact, and to help change the broken systems that hold people back. We want people to be heard and their messages heeded. In partnership with other organisations, including media partners, we will work to truly engage people in power in meaningful discussions about how we can work together to solve poverty.

3: Your Local Pantry

InterACT Pantry in Leeds: a green shipping container, with three people outside

The Your Local Pantry network was launched in 2014, and has grown especially quickly in the past two years. Today, there are 75 pantries nationwide, supporting more than 60,000 people to build community and save on their essential outgoings. 

Pantries soften the blow of high living costs, and create the conditions for communities to grow and thrive, by bringing people together around food. Members pay a small amount each week, and choose groceries worth many times more.

Each of those 75 Pantries is a partnership. Church Action on Poverty provides logistical support and national oversight and coordination, but it is the local partnership that makes each Pantry thrive.  Pantries are all about dignity, choice and hope. Each one operates as a member-led neighbourhood hub and a springboard to other community initiatives, opportunities and ideas. As we all continue to press for lasting change, pantries are an immediate positive step.

4: Self-Reliant Groups

Self Reliant Group

Self-Reliant Groups are small groups of people who meet save together, and use their savings together in a joint venture. Many involve craft-making, or cookery, and they bring dignity and power back to people who have often been sidelined by the mainstream economy. Around 80% of the members are women.

Church Action on Poverty works in partnership with organisations in Scotland, Wales and North West England to help the network of SRGs to grow, and we are also now partnering with an organisation in Leeds, to spread the movement there as well.

5: Challenge Poverty Week

Attendees at the Greater Manchester Big Poverty Conversation

Challenge Poverty Week is a moment when all the myriad groups and partnerships in the movement to end UK poverty can come together. 

The week in October is a time for us to hear loudly and clearly the voices that are too often ignored. It’s a chance to show that it is possible to build a better, more compassionate society in which everyone can live life to the full. And it’s a chance to widen our perspective, and see the vast amount of inspiring hope-filled work that is going on across the movement.

Church Action on Poverty coordinates the week in England and Wales, working closely with local authorities, community groups, charities, and the Poverty Alliance in Scotland, where the idea had first begun,

The role of churches - locally and nationally

A silhouette shot of a church, with the setting sun visible through its steeple

Alongside all of these partnerships, Church Action on Poverty will continue to work with the churches, at local and national level. 

Churches are ideally placed to play a key role in improving UK society, but that requires selflessness and an institutional, theological and cultural shift away from models of rescue and ‘service provision’. Churches must avoid any temptation to do things for people in poverty, and instead do things with people in poverty. 

Churches nationally will also need to invest in models of mission, leadership and discipleship which affirm the importance of social engagement and transformation (the missionary goal of transforming the unjust structures of society). Through our existing church partnerships and Church on the Margins programme, Church Action on Poverty can play a modest role in advocating for these new ways of working, and in challenging the institutional churches to invest accordingly.

Widening our lens, and self-reflection

Churches will also need to recognise the links between poverty and other social justice issues, including institutionalised prejudice on the basis of race, gender, disability and class. The churches and the anti-poverty sector (within which we include Church Action on Poverty) need to recognise and actively re-dress our own biases, and take seriously the challenge of intersectionality if we wish to be seen as part of the solution rather than part of the problem in future.

Time for churches to take this opportunity

The past few years have been tumultuous for all of us, and in response many radical voices are calling for a new social revolution, rekindling democracy or a shift towards a wellbeing economy,  or circular economy. All of these ideas, in their different ways, rightly seek to place local people and communities at the centre of society.  

As we have also found, particularly since the start of the pandemic, local communities are huge reservoirs of ingenuity, mutual support and goodwill. Churches can be a central part of this, drawing on the radical visions and ideas across scripture and the anti-poverty movement to help improve their whole community. Those who take the leap will be amazed at what they can achieve in partnership.

Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power

Stop press! A big step towards better media reporting of poverty

Stef: What dignity, agency & power mean to me

A call to UK churches: forge new partnerships and make change happen

Baking, walking, listening, giving – how you’re all marking our 40th

A radical idea that mobilised the UK’s churches

‘To restore one’s soul’

When people-power won the day against loan sharks

Wayne’s story: Why I (and you) must refuse to be invisible

Dignity, Agency, Power – new anthology launched today

How music is once more bringing people together in Sheffield

Church at the Edge: Young, woke and Christian

“When do we riot?” The impact of the cost of living crisis

Invisible Divides

The compassion in these neighbourhood pantries is fantastic!

Making the Economy work for Everyone

SPARK newsletter summer 2022

What is the Right To Food?

Hope story: a united stand against hunger

How we ensure struggles are not ignored

What does the cost of living crisis mean for people in poverty?

Choristers singing at the Reasons To Sing concert in Sheffield

What song means the most to you?

That’s the question that a few people in Sheffield began asking during the pandemic…. and the answers have led to a wonderful new project.

Choristers singing at the Reasons To Sing concert in Sheffield

Reasons To Sing! - A community project

Nick Waterfield from Share Ministries in Sheffield worked with local people in the north of the city, and with Steel City Choristers, on the Reasons To Sing project. People were asked to identify songs that mattered most to them, or which evoked particularly strong memories. 

The responses were profound and wonderful. In May, the choristers put on a special concert featuring 12 songs, accompanied by 12 video stories. And now, they have launched a course for small group discussions as well.

Kate Caroe from Steel City Choristers takes up the story…

“The value of music and singing has perhaps never been more apparent than while live performance was so sorely missed during the Coronavirus pandemic.

“For many people, the isolation of being in lockdown highlighted the power of music and our desperate need for it – not only for our pleasure, but for our mental and spiritual health and wellbeing. Music and song have the ability to take us to another place; like other creative arts, they move us into a liminal space – a space between spaces. We want to encourage more people to sing, and this course gives people of all ages the opportunity to reflect on why singing is so valuable a part of being human.”

The Reasons To Sing concert in Sheffield

How the course came about

“The course has been written with Methodist pioneer minister, Nick Waterfield of Share Ministries. It explores the soul of our favourite songs – how singing shapes and reflects how we feel.

“The course can be used in a variety of settings: in schools, community groups, care homes, churches and for private reflection. The course consists of six short videos on the themes of comfort, gratitude, loss, love, unity and structure, with a set of discussion notes and suggested activities to aid contemplation.

“Each video consists of the choir singing two songs and the stories behind them, and acts as a stimulus for reflection on each of the themes. Six of the songs have been chosen by people from Parson Cross Initiative, and they have been paired with six pieces from Steel City Choristers’ traditional repertoire, thus making English choral music relevant to people’s everyday lived experiences.

“The concert was wonderful. Joshua Stephens, director of music at Steel City Choristers, said: “I think this has been the most amazing concert. One of the most amazing things about this project, which has been the best part of a year, is about making choral music more accessible, more visible. 

“Hopefully we have shown that choral music is everything from something written in 1592 to Hi Ho Silver Lining and beyond. There are absolutely no words to sum up the feel-good feeling that this project has brought.”

List of songs

There were six themes, with two songs for each:

  • Comfort: He’s Got The Whold World In His Hands / Psalm 137
  • Gratitude: What A Wonderful World / For The Beauty Of The Earth
  • Loss: The Day Thou Gavest Lord Has Ended / In Paradisum from Faure’s Requiem
  • Love: Angels From The Realms of Glory / If Ye Love Me
  • Unity: Hi Ho Silver Lining / Jerusalem
  • Structure: Mr Blue Sky / Agnus Dei from Byrd’s Mass For Four Voices

Find out more

The course materials are available now on the Steel City Choristers website or by emailing  kate@steelcitychoristers.org.uk  

Filming in Sheffield for the Reasons To Sing project

Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power

Autumn Statement: Stef & Church Action on Poverty’s response

Act On Poverty – a Lent programme about tackling UK and global poverty

How 11 people spoke truth to power in Sussex

Obituary: Michael Campbell-Johnston SJ

Annual review 2022-23

Ashleigh: “I think we will become known for making a change”

North East churches & community gather to tackle poverty together

There’s huge public desire to end poverty – will politicians now act?

What is Let’s End Poverty – and how can you get involved?

Our partner APLE is looking for new trustees

Nottingham’s first Your Local Pantry opens

End Hunger UK campaigners

Everyone should have access to good food. Nobody should need to go to bed hungry.

Those simple values were the driving force behind End Hunger UK, an inspiring and hope-filled campaign that brought together thousands of people from 2016 to 2019.

Throughout this year, we are telling the stories featured in the 2022 Dignity, Agency, Power calendar, and April takes us to this photo, from one of the campaign’s most uplifting events.

End Hunger UK campaigners

How the campaign began

The End Hunger UK campaign was born from an almost universal anger and discomfort. All over the country, people and communities had seen the sudden and very steep rise in food poverty. Hunger is not new, but the scale and extent of it, and the way in which food aid had become an alarmingly routine part of society, felt unprecedented.

Charities, church groups, researchers and groups of people all over the UK joined forces, to see if they could pool their resources and power.

Over the lifetime of the campaign, thousands of people took part, writing to politicians, taking part in days of action, lobbying for policy change and simply standing up to say that hunger is unacceptable in a wealthy country like this.

Joining forces and singing together

It was very deliberately a coalition campaign. We know we can make more progress when, instead of talking over each other at key moments, we sing in chorus together.

That was very aptly illustrated at a campaign launch event at Sheffield Cathedral, pictured here, when Britain’s first food bank choir led the calls for change.

What we need in the long term

Lasting change requires Government leadership. Since this campaign, the pandemic and rising living costs have swept many more people into deep, deep difficulty. The need for Government action remains irrefutable.  

What we need is a national strategy to end hunger by 2030, and we need a clear roadmap involving all Government departments, to guide all Government policy in the coming years.

Reasons to remain hopeful

That won’t be easy, but the widespread support for End Hunger UK and the dynamic way it engaged people give reasons for hope. As a result of the campaign, Westminster began funding support for low-income families during school holidays for the first time, and also agreed to finally begin monitoring household food insecurity, an essential foundation stone for any serious attempts to solve it.

Attempts to end hunger in the UK continue. Hundreds of thousands of people continue to volunteer in or donate to neighbourhood projects, and the case for lasting Government action continues to grow.

Everyone should have access to good food. Nobody should need to go to bed hungry.

Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power

Halifax voices: on housing, hope and scandalous costs

The UK doesn’t want demonising rhetoric – it wants to end poverty

Sheffield Civic Breakfast: leaders told about mounting pressures of poverty

Artists perform for change in Manchester

Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield: annual report 2023-24

SPARK newsletter summer 2024

Church on the Margins reports

Inside Your Local Pantry in Peckham.

Throughout 2022, we are telling the stories from the Dignity, Agency, Power calendar. May’s page features Your Local Pantry, so we caught up with James Henderson, who became network development coordinator for Your Local Pantry at the end of last year.

James Henderson with pantry volunteers
James Henderson, second right, with volunteers at Hitchin Pantry

Hi James… Can you start by telling us how the Pantry network is doing?

It’s going really well. We were delighted to  recently launch the first Pantry in Northern Ireland, which means we now have Pantries in all four nations of the UK, and we are still getting lots of interest.

We’ve also recently had our second Pantry open in Portsmouth, and other new ones opening in Leicester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sandwell, St Helen’s, Peterborough, Epsom and Sefton. We are on 68 pantries now, and it’s been really exciting to see the growth and development, and knowing what a difference Pantries are making to communities.

What do you think is driving that growth?

It feels like Pantries are a really current solution to the whole set of circumstances we are seeing just now. People are being squeezed from all sides, particularly with the cost of living. We all want to people and communities to have as much dignity as possible, and they are seeing that the Pantry model works.

Something we are developing, and really keen to further develop, is the idea of the Pantry as a wider community hub, providing what members want beyond just shopping. Can other people and services come in to give the Pantries even more value?

James, you've been in post for almost 6 months now. How are you finding it?

I am really loving it! It’s a really dynamic team to work with, and we work well together, with a nice mix of skills. I really enjoy getting out and visiting Pantries. It’s one thing reading or hearing about things, but to go and meet members and volunteers and coordinators is fantastic.

I love hearing stories from members about the impact Pantries are having on their lives, whether that’s helping them save for something important to them, or easing the difficult choices people are having to make, or meeting new people.

I love seeing the compassion of volunteers and coordinators, and seeing how much they really do care for the members. Pantries are really embedded in communities, and when you go in there is such a buzz, such a nice atmosphere. It’s lovely to see.

People reading this might want to get involved, or support Pantries. What can people do?

There are a few things people can do. If people want to join a Pantry, you can find your nearest one on the website. If there’s not one where you live, and you want to start one, there’s a Q&A on the website too, or you can email us for information. 

Pantries are all hosted by local organisations, such as community centres, charities, churches or councils, so you might want to find a local organisation that you think could be a host.

If you want to support the network, the Friends Of Your Local Pantry scheme is a great way to get involved. This enables you to support your nearest pantry and others in the network.

Also, just spreading the word is useful, and if you are a Christian then keep praying for the members, volunteers and coordinators. Half of the Pantries are linked to churches, and I know those 

Pantry teams really appreciate people’s prayers. Some members are in very difficult situations and volunteers are increasing hours, and some Pantries have waiting lists because there is so much demand, so all support is appreciated. 

Lastly, do follow us on social media. It’s a lovely way to see what different Pantries are doing, and to hear from volunteers and members and coordinators all over the country.

Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power

Sheffield voices: We need higher incomes and more for young people

Cost of living scandal: 7 truly useful church responses

Stories that challenge: Alan & Ben

7 ways a Your Local Pantry could help YOUR community in 2024

Artist Don: How Leith Pantry has helped ease my depression

Are we set for a landmark legal change on inequality?

SPARK newsletter winter 2023-24

Let’s say what we truly want society to look like – Let’s End Poverty

Charity and church leaders call for urgent action on rising poverty in the UK and around the world

Ellis Howard

Telling your own story for a good purpose is like having a superpower, says Ellis.

Ellis Howard

Every month, our Dignity, Agency, Power series tells of inspiring people and groups who are tackling poverty in the UK.

Some stories are of people taking action right now, and others look at great pieces of work in the recent past. All of them, we hope, might bring renewed hope, ideas and confidence for all of us in the movement to end UK poverty.

The stories run alongside the photos in the 2022 Dignity, Agency, Power photo calendar.  

Our March story feature Ellis Howard, who spoke to us last year about his work to ensure people’s struggles are not only heard, but also drawn on to help improve the future.

If you missed it then, here’s what Ellis had to say:

My name is Ellis Howard. I  am a Scouse actor-writer.  With Church Action on Poverty, I ran a series of workshops all about how we can use our lived  experiences and transform them to activism; how we can own our stories of struggle, of  food shortages, to empower us and to help shape future policy and future lives.  

Transforming lived experience into activism

My name is Ellis Howard. I  am a Scouse actor-writer.  With Church Action on Poverty, I ran a series of workshops all about how we can use our lived  experiences and transform them to activism; how we can own our stories of struggle, of  food shortages, to empower us and to help shape future policy and future lives.  

Celebrating unheard stories

For so long these stories, these experiences, these lives have been completely undocumented.  They haven’t been celebrated in a glorious nuanced way. 

Harness your superpower

Get in touch with all of those things that make you unique, and absolutely harness them, because that’s where your superpower lies.

Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power

Weed it and reap: why so many Pantries are adding gardens

Epsom voices: It’s a lovely place – but many feel excluded

Stoke voices: We want opportunity and hope

Merseyside Pantries reach big milestone

Transforming the Jericho Road

Partner focus: Meet Community One Stop in Edinburgh

The Tax Justice Bus in 2012

The 2022 Dignity, Agency, Power calendar include stories from today and from previous inspiring campaigns in the movement to end poverty. Here, we look at the Tax Justice Tour.

The Tax Justice Bus in 2012

In 2012, Church Action on Poverty and Christian Aid took a double-decker Tax Justice Bus around the UK on a 53-day tour,
visiting 109 towns and cities.

Campaigners spoke to politicians, campaign groups, church leaders and the media, inspiring people to speak up and mobilising support.

This campaign and others paid off in summer 2021, when the G7 leaders agreed that multinational companies must pay at least 15% tax on profits in countries where they operate – a big step towards tax justice.

The tour generated nearly 500 pieces of media coverage, and dozens of MPs boarded the bus when it reached their constituency, to learn more about the issues.

At the end of the tour, a petition with 10,000 signatures was presented to Prime Minister David Cameron. 

In 2021, the campaign and similar ones paid off, when finance ministers from G7 countries reached a deal to ensure multinational companies pay at least 15% tax on profits in the countries where they operate.

Be part of a movement that’s reclaiming dignity, agency and power

Unheard no more: Story project brings hope for change

Our use of social media: an update

Just Worship review

6 places, 41 people: Some of the UK’s unheard election voices

Wythenshawe voices: It’s wonderful – but austerity NEEDS to end

In 2022, as we enter our 40th anniversary year, our vision remains the same: A UK free from poverty. We remain unrepentant in believing this should be the goal in one of the richest countries on the planet. 

By Niall Cooper, Church Action on Poverty director

19 January 2022

 

Whilst our vision remains the same, our goal for the coming year is to enable people and communities to be more resilient in the face of an impending cost of living catastrophe (see The Year of the Squeeze,  Resolution Foundation). 

In this blog, I will look at the economic context and challenges, then show why we can be optimistic, particularly if we work in partnership in communities. Finally, to show this is not wishful thinking, I set out six examples that can give us all grounds for confidence and hope.

Context: The coming cost of living catastrophe

The latest research from Joseph Rowntree Foundation published this week, shows that households on low incomes will be spending on average 18% of their income after housing costs on energy bills after April. For single adult households on low incomes this rises to a shocking 54%. (see Rising energy bills devastate poorest families, JRF).  Lest we forget, this is on top of the ongoing impacts of the pandemic itself, and a decade of austerity, stagnant incomes and destitution (as documented by Coventry University’s Life on the Breadline research project we partnered with from 2018-2021). 

Left to their own devices, individuals and families will struggle to cope.  Neither the traditional welfare safety net nor increasingly threadbare local public services are likely to be able to offer much respite, beyond the most immediate crisis support – or a foodbank voucher. (see Leave No Family Behind Welfare Assistance during Covid-19). 

Moving beyond traditional approaches to tackling poverty

Responses which focus on either securing significant increases in benefit levels from Government, or on ‘rescuing’ individuals and families from poverty are unlikely to deliver significant results, and arguably even less so in the current economic and political climate. 

In fact, traditional approaches to tackling poverty, which effectively deny any agency or power to people and communities struggling against poverty themselves, may exacerbate the way in which people are ‘othered’ and seen only as part of a problem to be fixed (see ‘To count for nothing’: Poverty beyond the statistics).  

Deep-seated and institutionalised prejudice on the basis of race, gender, disability and class is also frequently masked by ‘one-sized fits all’ approaches to tackling poverty. 

The churches and the anti-poverty sector (within which we must also include Church Action on Poverty) need to recognise and actively re-dress our own biases, and take seriously the challenge of intersectionality if we wish to be seen as part of the solution rather than part of the problem in future. (see Intersectionality: revealing the realities of poverty and inequality in Scotland).   

Signs of hope: radical thinking and resilient communities

In the face of this, radical voices are calling for a new social revolution, rekinding democracy or a shift towards a wellbeing economy,  or circular economy

All of these, in their different ways, are seeking to place local people and communities back at the centre of how to rebuild a society fit for the 21st century, in which people, rather than profit and growth, matter most

As we also know afresh from the past 18 months, local communities are huge reservoirs of resilience, mutual support and goodwill (see Resilient communities). Faith communities, whilst not being the sole repository of resilience, are at the heart of this, holding precious assets of committed volunteers, community buildings, social networks and public trust (see Movement for recovery).

The task ahead: Reclaiming dignity agency and power together

In this context, Church Action on Poverty’s task for the next year and beyond is to focus on working with a wide array of partners to promote initiatives in which local people and communities struggling against poverty can come together, and take collective action to reclaim their own dignity, agency and power, in order to mitigate the impact of a further economic squeeze.

Here are six examples of what that looks like in action:

1: Your Local Pantry

Pantry volunteers unpacking stock

Local Pantries are ideally positioned at the forefront of a resilient community response. 

The 70+ members of the Your Local Pantry network across the UK are a form of mutual aid. Each Pantry member can save up to £780 from their household bills each year – roughly balancing out the impact of the fuel price rise and tax increases slated for April on low income households. 

In this way, joining Your Local Pantry is a preventative act – to stop household finances slipping further into the red over the coming months. On the positive side of the equation, Local Pantries also serve to boost a broad range of other household assets, including health, mental health, social connection, self-esteem, dignity and choice – and more broadly provide a locus for hope and optimism at neighbourhood level. 

2: Self-Reliant Groups

Self Reliant Group

More modestly, we will continue to grow the Self-Reliant Groups movement with new or existing partners (including piloting SRGs within Local Pantries), as a way of promoting women’s empowerment and gender justice (80% of SRG members are women from low income, marginalised communities).  

Joining a Self-Reliant Group is a highly effective way for highly excluded groups of people to build their self-confidence, social solidarity, dignity as well as the agency that comes from collectively earning even relatively modest sums of money. 

3: Poverty Truth Commissions

Identifying partners in one or two areas who are keen to develop proposals for local Poverty Truth Commissions, in conjunction with the Poverty Truth Network, will enable people struggling against poverty to constructively engage with key leaders in public and private institutions that continue to wield significant power at local level. 

These powerholders regularly make critical decisions over the allocation of large public and private budgets (frequently running to hundreds of millions of pounds), workforces and services that impact the lives of local populations.  Even ‘marginal gains’ or seemingly ‘small scale’ changes inspired by grassroots members of Poverty Truth Commissions can have significant and tangible benefits for large numbers of people struggling against poverty at town or city-wide level.

4: Speaking Truth To Power

The Speaking Truth To Power logo

Speaking truth to power will continue to be a vital task, to ensure the voices, stories, ideas and opinions of people struggling with poverty are heard and understood by decision makers, including those in the faith and voluntary sectors as well as politicians, public bodies, opinion formers, the media and ultimately the general public.  

To this end, our new Speaking Truth to Power programme will be a key priority, drawing on proven methods developed over the past decades. This work will support a new generation of activists – including critically people struggling against poverty themselves – to have the skills and confidence to speak their own truth to power on the issues that matter most to them and their communities. 

We will pilot this with work in a number of local areas, including where there is a critical mass of Pantries and Pantry members, as a means of exploring the potential for Your Local Pantry to become a broader member-led movement for broader social change at local and ultimately national level. 

5: Challenge Poverty Week

We will continue to invest and grow Challenge Poverty Week as a key ‘mobilising moment’ for partners across the country to celebrate the positive work being undertaken within local communities and amplify the voices of people in poverty, whilst reminding power holders and the wider public of the need for a broader commitment to challenge poverty in the difficult years ahead. 

6: Churches as agents of social transformation

Stock image of church windows

Churches are ideally placed to play a key role within this work, but to do so requires an institutional, theological and cultural shift away from models of ‘service provision’. These models see people primarily through the lens of helplessness, haplessness, vulnerability or victimhood, triggering thoughts of rescue or saving. We need to move towards models in which churches are open to the possibility of people struggling against poverty exercising agency and leadership, as equal partners alongside clergy and (other) church members, (eg through the model of member-run Local Pantries).

It will also require investing in models of mission, leadership and discipleship which affirm the importance of social engagement and transformation (the missionary goal of transforming the unjust structures of society). 

This is exemplified by the Church of Scotland’s Priority Areas programme and Faith in Community Scotland. Through our existing church partnerships and Church on the Margins programme, Church Action on Poverty can play a modest role in advocating for these new ways of working, and in challenging the institutional churches to invest in what the Church of Scotland recognised more than a decade ago to be ‘the Gospel priority.’  

Building a social movement, a social revolution and a wellbeing society

Through all of this, Church Action on Poverty can play a catalytic role, working with partners to grow a radical social movement in which people and communities struggling against poverty are able to reclaim their dignity, agency and power. 

In doing so, we can enable communities who are too often written off as ‘left behind’ to play a key role in a wider social revolution and transition towards a society focussed on the wellbeing of all its members.

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Look up child

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Sheffield Church Action on Poverty Update, March 2021

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Right-wing and Left-wing Christian Approaches to Poverty

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2021 stories: how friends are striking a chord for justice and unity

Annual review 2019–20

Easter

Press release: Thousands join Your Local Pantry in response to pandemic

Your Local Pantry: A triumph of community resilience, offering dignity, choice and hope in a time of crisis

Dignity, Choice, Hope

Sheffield Church Action on Poverty Update, January 2021

SPARK newsletter winter 2021

Dignity, agency and power: a conversation

32,000 meals, and now a bold new food plan

12 inspiring anti-poverty stars & stories from 2020

Covid pulled us deep into debt. It’ll be years before we are free.

Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield: 2020 AGM

People in poverty must be heeded, not just heard

Being Interrupted: doorstep encounters

Thoughts on child hunger, privilege, and immunity against judgment

SPARK newsletter, winter 2024-25

Speaking Truth to Power panelists meet with minister Stephen Timms

Meeting the minister

A large posed groupshot in a hall. Some people are in blue 'Your Local Pantry' aprons and there is a balloon arch behind them.

19 new Pantries are reaching thousands of people

Jayne Gosnall and Shaun Kelly

Don't try to 'give a voice' - listen to the voices that have been drowned out

Every month, our Dignity, Agency, Power series tells of inspiring people and groups who are tackling poverty in the UK.

Some stories are of people taking action right now, and others look at great pieces of work in the recent past. All of them, we hope, might bring renewed hope, ideas and confidence for all of us in the movement to end UK poverty.

The stories run alongside the photos in our annual Dignity, Agency, Power photo calendars.  This was one of the first stories: 

Jayne Gosnall and Shaun Kelly

Meet Jayne & Shaun in Salford

Jayne and Shaun are two tenacious and inspirational activists.

They have taken part in many community initiatives to help tackle the root causes of poverty, locally and nationally, and have spoken up about the way people in poverty are represented, particularly in the media.

Over to Jayne:

“One of the things that happens with people in poverty is that their confidence and self-esteem are affected so it’s really important that people are encouraged to use their voice, even if they do not feel they have got one.

I get annoyed when organisations say they are ‘empowering’ people, because that says ‘they’ have power and ‘we’ do not. I like when organisations like Church Action on Poverty talk about the person’s own agency, and through agency comes dignity.

Jayne Gosnall

Real voices & real experience really matter

“Charities and organisations shouldn’t say “we give people a voice”. People have a voice, but often nobody listens. I like when organisations and people acknowledge the voices that are already there, and use their abilities to find and amplify voices that are already there. 

“That’s what Church Action on Poverty does. I have enjoyed my whole time working alongside them, destigmatising issues and finding real voices with real experience. That is what really matters.

Shaun Kelly and Jayne Gosnall

A new outlook, thanks to Poverty Truth

“I am very passionate about Self Reliant Groups. Shaun and I have both been involved in that movement, and have seen how wonderful they are for people, forging community and creativity and independence. I’ve also enjoyed the media guide projects we’ve worked on, to improve how poverty is covered in the media, and the food research work, and also the creative work during the pandemic, like the Same Boat poetry anthology. 

“I have enjoyed everything… but if I had to pick one stand-out thing, it would have to be the Salford Poverty Truth Commission. It changed the way I thought about myself and the issues. I realised that it is important to use the voice you have and use it un-self-consciously, because hearing people’s real stories matters. The only thing that happens if you don’t share, is that other people remain unaware.

Shaun Kelly and Jayne Gosnall

“All my life, I had been self-conscious about speaking publicly or in groups. But then, coming out of the Poverty Truth Commission, I was sometimes asked to speak on a stage or to strangers and to people who had more power than me in society.

“Instead of feeling nervous, it felt very much like that my role was to communicate the truth, and I wanted to do that well. I cared not about how people saw me, but about the stories being heard. The Poverty Truth experience ended the idea of “them and us” for me. It brought home the human-ness of everyone.

“For the photos in the calendar, Shaun and I chose to be pictured at Salford Museum and Art Gallery. It’s a place that tries really hard to keep the community involved, and which hasn’t changed or been destroyed over the years by the growth of harsh capitalism.”

Actions: 3 things you could do now...

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SPARK newsletter summer 2022

What is the Right To Food?

Hope story: a united stand against hunger

How we ensure struggles are not ignored

What does the cost of living crisis mean for people in poverty?

Holding the church to account

On the road: recalling the time we took a bus all round Britain

SPARK newsletter winter 2021–22

6 ways we can build dignity, agency & power amid the cost of living crisis

Hope story: tenacity and change in Salford

12 stories of hope for 2022 – and immediate actions you can take

How Thrive took control of the agenda in 2021

Annual review 2020–21

2021 conference: watch the recordings

Long read: How do we build dignity, agency & power together?

What happened when Manchester sat down to talk about poverty…

Sheffield Pilgrimage: pandemic boosts community spirit, but leaves physical and mental scars

How grassroots films change views of poverty

13th Sheffield Pilgrimage, 2021

Listen up to level up: why we must rebuild together

Growing crops & community amid the pandemic

SPARK newsletter, winter 2024-25

Speaking Truth to Power panelists meet with minister Stephen Timms

Meeting the minister

A large posed groupshot in a hall. Some people are in blue 'Your Local Pantry' aprons and there is a balloon arch behind them.

19 new Pantries are reaching thousands of people

The 2022 Dignity, Agency, Power photo calendar is packed with inspiring and uplifting people helping to loosen poverty's grip.

Copies are being sent to Church Action on Poverty’s supporters. If you’re not on our mailing list and would like to order copies, email us.

Here’s is a preview, showing the 12 featured stories. For each one, we also suggest a simple immediate step you can take, to help propel the movement to end poverty.

1. Meet Jayne & Shaun

Jayne Gosnall and Shaun Kelly

Jayne Gosnall and Shaun Kelly have inspired many others by
sharing their stories, poetry and creativity, including in the Same Boat? anthology and through the Self-Reliant Group movement.

Jayne was also part of Salford Poverty Truth Commission and has spoken up in the media about poverty.

She says: “One of the best things that has happened to me is getting involved in projects through Church Action on Poverty. It’s a great organisation and what I like is that they always try to get normal voices in there, which is really good.

“One of the things that happens with people in poverty is that their confidence and self-esteem are affected so it’s really important that people are encouraged to use their voice, even if they do not feel they have got one.”

  • Photo by Madeleine Penfold

2. All aboard for tax justice

The Tax Justice Bus in 2012

In 2012, Church Action on Poverty and Christian Aid took a double-decker Tax Justice Bus around the UK on a 53-day tour,
visiting 109 towns and cities.

Campaigners spoke to politicians, campaign groups, church leaders and the media, inspiring people to speak up and mobilising support.

This campaign and others paid off in summer 2021, when the G7 leaders agreed that multinational companies must pay at least 15% tax on profits in countries where they operate – a big step towards tax justice.

  • Photo by The Press newspaper in York.

3. A love letter to brave souls

Ellis Howard

To challenge poverty, it’s vital that people with direct experience are heard.

Ellis Howard, an actor-writer from Liverpool, ran workshops
with Church Action on Poverty in 2020, showing how people can
use their lived experiences and transform them into activism, using stories of struggle, hunger or poverty to build power and shape the future.

Ellis’ contribution to our Same Boat? poetry anthology on
poverty and lockdown was “a love letter to those brave souls who history continually tries to undermine, but we don’t let it.”

He says: “For so long these stories, these experiences, these lives have been completely undocumented. They haven’t been celebrated in a glorious nuanced way.”

  • Photo by Madeleine Penfold

4. A bold vision to end hunger

End Hunger UK campaigners

The End Hunger UK campaign, coordinated by Church Action
on Poverty from 2016 to 2020, brought together faith groups,
campaigners and charities, united by a bold vision of a country
where everyone has access to good food.

One of the brightest events was when the Food Glorious Food choir, formed in a Sheffield food bank, sang at the city’s Cathedral as part of a day of action.

There is a long way to go, but campaigning has helped ensure that the Government now properly monitors food poverty, and is funding a programme of food and activities which goes some way to tackling the growing problem of holiday hunger.

  • Photo by Alexandra Wallace

5. Food with dignity

Volunteers Christine Hoy and Karen Paterson at the Fresh Start Your Local Pantry in Edinburgh

The Your Local Pantry network safeguards food access without compromising on dignity.

The number of Pantries supported by Church Action on Poverty
has more than trebled in the past two years. Over 11,000 households are now members.

Pantries reduce costs, strengthen community, combat isolation and improve health and wellbeing. They are bustling triumphs of community, and can be the cornerstone for future progress.

Pictured are volunteers Christine Hoy and Karen Paterson, at the Fresh Start Pantry in Edinburgh.

  • Photo by Christopher Cook. 

6. Tackling Debt on our Doorstep

Debt On Our Doorstep campaigners in Westminster

For many years, ‘doorstep lenders’ and ‘rent-to-own’ companies
were a scourge on poor communities, charging exorbitant rates
to people who had nowhere else to turn.

We knew it would take a broad effort to bring change, so the Debt On Our Doorstep campaign brought together churches, credit unions, experts on debt and credit, and most importantly, people with personal experience of debt and high-cost lending.

This picture shows our ‘loan sharks’ demonstration outside Parliament. Campaigning paid off… Government regulators finally took action, introducing a cap on the cost of credit and other regulations which ultimately led to Wonga, Provident Financial and other lenders having to cease their exploitative practices.

  • Photo from Church Action on Poverty archives.

7. July

Stef Benstead

Stef Benstead knew first-hand how badly the UK was treating disabled people, and wasn’t willing to stay silent. Her book, Second Class Citizens, charted the way that disabled people’s rights had been breached and set out a vision for a better way.

Stef, a Church Action on Poverty trustee, was also part of Manchester Poverty Truth Commission, which has brought people in poverty and decision-makers together, to find solutions through their shared wisdom. 

8. August

The Pilgrimage Against Poverty in 1999

In August 1999, The Pilgrimage Against Poverty began on the Scottish island of Iona. Nine weeks later, with hundreds of walkers having taken part, it reached Westminster, where some of the Pilgrims met the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, setting out proposals to tackle poverty.

The Pilgrimage, organised by Church Action on Poverty, shone a light on poverty in the UK and pressed for change, mobilising and energising supporters as never before.

9. September

Monica Gregory

Monica Gregory, who works with homeless people in Oxford, has been speaking out as part of Church Action on Poverty and Sustain’s Food Power programme, and also took part in a Food Experiences panel work to understand food insecurity in the context of covid.

Monica found confidence through the work to speak up about poverty in Oxford, which is often hidden.

She says: “It doesn’t matter what people think of you, you know, as long as you believe in yourself and you love yourself. Just look in the mirror and tell yourself that you know that you love yourself and that you are worthy. Don’t ever give up.”

10. October

The Greater Manchester Big Poverty Conversation, as part of Challenge Poverty Week England and Wales

All over the UK, there are people whose experience of poverty has given them powerful insights into what could make a difference. Challenge Poverty Week each October amplifies voices that are too often drowned out and focuses on solutions.

If we harness our collective kindness, determination and wisdom, we can build the compassionate and just society that we all crave. 

You can sign up below to find out what’s happening in 2022, or to take part. challengepoverty.net in Scotland or challengepoverty.co.uk in England and Wales. 

11. November

Self Reliant Group

Great things can happen when people come together. Self-Reliant Groups are proof of that. Each group is run by and for its members, creating new freedom in their lives and alleviating many aspects of poverty such as marginalisation and a lack of power. Groups meet regularly, save together, make collective decisions and learn new skills together, with the potential to become a business.

Church Action on Poverty leads the growth of groups in the North West of England.

12. December

Participatory Budgeting

Local people know best what their community needs, so it is right that they should decide how money is spent in their town or city.

That idea ought not to sound radical, but in the early 2000s it was. The concept of participatory budgeting began in Brazil in the 1990s, and when a group from Salford visited ten years later, they brought the idea back to the UK, involving thousands of people in more than 200 areas.

Phil Teece, who led the work for Church Action on Poverty, says: “Citizens are as capable, or more capable, of making the decisions that will affect them most. That’s a very powerful message. It’s not about alleviating poverty per se, but it’s transferring power and giving people the confidence to engage. It makes a big difference to people who felt they had no power whatsoever.”

Be in my Bubble

Gathering on the Margins – 16 June

Gathering on the Margins – 9 June

Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield Update, June 2020

Viral Song

New wine, new wineskins: theological reflection on ‘building back better’

Gathering on the Margins – 2 June

Reflecting together, 28 May: Whom are we serving in our services?

You can’t eat the view

Reflecting together, 21 May: inhabiting the public realm in the midst of lockdown

Book review: Bread of Life in Broken Britain

Staying connected: 3 stories from Sheffield

Gathering on the Margins – 26 May

You Can’t Eat the View

How a few photos from 2008 still undermine attempts to tackle UK poverty

New wine, new wineskins part 3: What needs to change?

Gathering on the Margins, 19 May: Building back better?

New wine, new wineskins part 2: What does our faith tell us?

Reflecting together, 14 May: Power and powerlessness

New wine, new wineskins part 1: Journeying into a new world

New wine, new wineskins: introduction

Gathering on the Margins – 12 May

Church on the Margins: resilience

Are we in the same boat? Some creative responses

Shopping online? You can raise money to loosen the grip of poverty

Listen up! New podcast to help end poverty

Church on the Margins in the time of coronavirus

Solidarity and sacrifice

The prophetic imagination

Where are the margins?

Who is my neighbour?

Gathering on the Margins – 5 May

Church on the Margins: video reflections

Yellow sticker – a poem

Gathering on the Margins – 28th April

Kindness, community and rhubarb: my memories of tough times 80 years apart

Universal Credit – a poem

Nobody saw it coming – a poem

Signs – a poem

SPARK newsletter, winter 2024-25

Speaking Truth to Power panelists meet with minister Stephen Timms

Meeting the minister

A large posed groupshot in a hall. Some people are in blue 'Your Local Pantry' aprons and there is a balloon arch behind them.

19 new Pantries are reaching thousands of people

Three members of Thrive Teesside, including blog author Tracey Herrington

Thrive Teesside have had a remarkable year. They recount why, in our final calendar story of 2021.

It has certainly been a year like no other. Notwithstanding the continuous challenges facing our community, we have worked tirelessly to seek out opportunities to amplify the many voices that otherwise would have been silenced.
Three members of Thrive Teesside, including blog author Tracey Herrington

What does listening actually mean?

Taking control of the agenda and speaking out about the issues that have been important to our community has been our driving force. 

The areas of work Thrive has embarked upon include:

  • Meaningfully addressing the digital divide, and
  • Thinking about the impact debt deductions from benefits are having on below par incomes.

We put our head above the parapet and reached out to non-traditional partners to develop relationships, accepting that, on our own, it would be difficult to effect positive change.

We were keen to merge our unique area of expertise and this year, as part of Thrive’s national work with Poverty2Solutions, we attended the Conservative Party Conference and stimulated a discussion around what listening to left behind communities actually means and could look like.

Thrive: working on solutions, not slogans

This year we also began our Thriving Women workshops, they were so welcomed after some difficult times and coming out of lockdown, finally we could get together in person. The workshops have definitive aims – to empower those who are powerless and to produce a body of work that reflects their lived experience of that.

We have a diverse group of women, some new to writing and some with a little experience, but all with a passion to have their voice heard on some of the issues faced on a personal level and within their community, we have explored “living in poverty, where we live, community and active citizenship, our right to reply, to whom it may concern, our Manifesto, Levelling up- solutions not slogans, and collective voices.

Thrive: inspirational and transformative

Thrive have continued to be inspirational and transformative, ensuring local people are the driving force behind all that they do.
Thrive on their awards night

Thrive Teesside was crowned winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Social Change category at this year’s North East Charity Awards and this was hugely rewarding.

It is often quite difficult to keep motivated when constantly faced with challenges. The Thrive community are deserving of this recognition and it is humbling to witness their tenacity, dedication and determination to effect change.

Thrive member Corrina Eastwood says: “It was amazing to be shortlisted and then win this award. I’m inspired for the opportunities ahead and excited for the future of Thrive.”

As an innovator of change, Thrive is proud to keep Teesside on the map.

Thrive award photo
  • Thrive Teesside feature on the December page of Church Action on Poverty’s 2021 Dignity, Agency, Power calendar. 

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Meeting the minister

A large posed groupshot in a hall. Some people are in blue 'Your Local Pantry' aprons and there is a balloon arch behind them.

19 new Pantries are reaching thousands of people