SPARK newsletter winter 2021
Click on the right to download the latest issue of SPARK, our newsletter for supporters of Church Action on Poverty.
32,000 meals, and now a bold new food plan
How do we recognise and uphold the dignity, agency and power of people in poverty?
How do we ensure people with first-hand insights are heard and heeded?
How do we bring together all our myriad experiences, skills and resolve, to break free from poverty and build a more compassionate society?
Throughout this year, to help answer some of those questions, we will share the stories behind the photos in our 2021 calendar. Each month, we will focus on one inspirational project that we are proud to stand alongside in the movement to end poverty.
Welcome to North Shields
This month, the spotlight is on The Cedarwood Trust, which was founded in North Shields 40 years ago. Cedarwood has always been a close partner of Church Action on Poverty and exists to serve the immediate needs of its local community and to work towards a better society for everyone. In recent years, as well as the day-to-day community work, the team and local people have taken part in projects such as Voices From The Margins, and they spoke up when the UN’s Philip Alston visited the UK in 2018.
The group shot below of some of the Cedarwood team opens our 2021 calendar, and we asked chief executive, Wayne Dobson, what dignity, agency and power means to him and the community.
Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect
“I come from a very humble background where community is everything. We had no gardens, the houses were tight together and you knew each other and would often be fed by each other as neighbours.
“There was a huge amount of community and no difference between people. I think sometimes now, people are very quick to point out differences between people, but what I remember is a real sense of community and knowing what we had in common.
“That’s what I still hold in my heart. Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. That should be systemic through everything we do.
“Cedarwood is a safe and welcoming place for people. It can be somewhere they meet people or get support or just somewhere where they have a big bowl of food to sustain themselves.
“We have really expanded where we work, especially since the start of the pandemic. We always served the Meadow Well estate, but we have found a lot more people wanting to be part of the community we support, especially because a lot of people who have moved off the estate over the years have kept an attachment to Cedarwood.
32,000 meals and a bold new plan
“We now support people from vast areas of North Tynesisde and when we ask people why they are coming to Cedarwood from so far, they say it’s because their mam or sister used to come and they trust us. It has almost become part of the common psyche of where people go for support. It’s a good thing but it stretches resources incredibly. We’ve given out 32,000 meals since the first lockdown started.”
Sustaining dignity is vital to Cedarwood and its residents, and the charity is about to launch a new food membership scheme, inspired by projects such as Your Local Pantry. The Co-op has granted the charity use of one of its empty branches for six months, rent-free.
Cedarwood will turn it into a local shop, selling basic groceries to the whole community, but people can also join as members, paying a small weekly subscription which entitles them to a far larger value of groceries in return.
Wayne says: “One of the things that gets a lot of discussion around here is poverty-proofing, whether that’s in schools or elsewhere, and part of that involves reducing the stigma. We do that in a lot of our work. For example, at Christmas we wanted to ensure children in North Tyneside received a Christmas stocking, but we didn’t want it to just be for children identified as ‘poor’ by their teachers, so we worked with schools and blanketed them, so every child in 13 schools received one.
If we have something we can share - let's share it
“Our plan now is to open a high-quality shop, very visible rather than tucked away somewhere, and there will be no clear distinction between people who are members and people who are paying cash, except that we will know at the till who is a member.
“That’s the ethos we are trying to develop, so there will be no distinction between one person and the next man or woman. The building would normally be £32,000 a year in rent, but we have it for six months and then can see where that leads. Depending on covid, it can give us a chance to look at things like a community café or a small community library as well.
“All of this touches on Christian beliefs as well: if we have something and can share it, let’s share it. We cannot be more useful than when we are sharing what we have.”
Cedarwood worked wonders last spring and summer, delivering meals, providing phone calls and conversations, and doing door-step visits to maintain spirits and community. This video shows a flavour of what that all meant to local people.
Doing likewise this year will be difficult, as some of the funding that enabled it is coming to an end, but Wayne and the team are determined to do whatever they can. “We are reaching out much more and staff are developing bigger and bigger aspirations,” he says.
12 inspiring anti-poverty stars & stories from 2020
As 2020 makes way for 2021, let us highlight and commend people and projects working wonders in their communities.
Amid the sadness and upheaval of 2020, there has been much from which we can draw hope.
Communities have responded with compassion, urgency and ingenuity to the immediate needs of neighbours, and spoken up against unjust systems.
We have worked with professional photographers to capture some of these anti-poverty stars, telling the stories of their wonderful work, and we’ve sent photo calendars to our regular supporters.
1. Poetry v Poverty
In the spring, poet Matt Sowerby began working with people in poverty, to look at the unequal effects of the pandemic, discussing people’s experiences and insights, and working together to articulate their perspectives.
The result was Same Boat?, an anthology of eloquent and incisive poetry, launched with an online reading. Copies have been sent to public libraries in some of England’s biggest cities and are on sale here.
2). Thriving together, striving for action
With similar motives, Thrive Teesside in Stockton published Thriving Teesside. Through prose, poetry, photography and art, local residents reflect on their hometown, poverty, the pandemic and social injustice. Thrive is a frequent inspiration to many of us in this sector, striving not only to be heard, but to bring about change based on what local people have lived and learned.
3. The Poverty Truth movement
Projects such as Hear My Story in Shoreham and Worthing ensure local people’s experiences are heard and empowered. Poverty can be overcome by putting local decision makers and people with personal experience of poverty together, and harnessing everyone’s shared wisdom and vision.
4. Making our food systems better
Food access has been a big issue this year. We all saw the shortages in the spring, when the precise but fragile supermarket supply chains were disrupted. We’re all aware of the increased need for emergency food aid, as millions more people have been swept into hardship.
We must meet the immediate need but also challenge the systems, to make the future better. In Newcastle, Penny Walters volunteers in local projects, and also shares her insights with politicians and the media.
5. Compassion and campaigns
Similarly, Sydnie Corley and Mary Passeri run York Food Justice Alliance, re-distributing food to prevent hunger, while also campaigning for lasting solutions, speaking truth to power, and holding flawed systems to account. That’s how change happens.
6. Compassion and campaigns
In North Shields, The Cedarwood Trust, 40 years old this year, showed great agility to source, cook and deliver hundreds of hot meals for their neighbours and regulars, and also produced a video to ensure local people were not only recipients of support, but also ambassadors for their own community and its needs.
7. Sticking together and saving money
The Your Local Pantry network has adapted and grown in response to the pandemic. Pantries enable people to pay less for essential groceries, ensure access to fresh and varied food, and reduce isolation.
8. All growing together
In Cornwall, Newquay Community Orchard has stepped up its work. It already produces wonderful organic food and provides a space where people can develop their mental health, and it is now setting up a food hub to ensure nobody in their community need go hungry.
9. Let nobody be cut adrift
Likewise, the Parson Cross Initiative in Sheffield has continually adapted, finding new ways to safeguard local people’s access to food, sustaining community and peace on the shared allotments, and supporting the Our Stories, Our Lives project, ensuring local experiences were understood and listened to.
Time and again, good food, community, compassion and a refusal to accept injustice go hand in hand.
10. Amplifying marginalised voices
The pandemic exposed and intensified inequalities. The way our economy is designed does not always reflect the compassion of our society, as we see, for instance, in the hurdles set before people who have newly arrived in the UK. Projects such as Migrant Support in Manchester are vital, providing practical support, training and social encouragement, and amplifying marginalised voices.
11. Lights, camera, ACTION
The events of this year have challenged us all, and severely hurt a great many, which has made the ability of people to adapt and keep working creatively against poverty all the more impressive.
The Same Boat, a short film by Brody Salmon, showed the human impact of the pandemic, including on a stressed NHS worker, under pressure in her job and struggling to make ends meet at home,
12. Striking a chord for justice
Music brings people together and captures people’s attention. The Food Glorious Food choir and subsequent guitar circle were born in Sheffield food banks and have helped people here in the Gleadless Valley neighbourhood to raise their voices against poverty and strike a chord for justice.
Our hope in 2021 is that all of us who want to see an end to poverty, and who want to build a better, even more compassionate society, will join in harmony to keep creating messages and movements that cannot be drowned out.
Copies of our 2021 calendar have been sent to regular supporters. If you would like to buy a copy, click here. 
Throughout 2021, we will be revisiting the stories in the calendar in depth, introducing you to the people behind the projects, and discussing their ideas and vision for a just and compassionate society.
Covid pulled us deep into debt. It’ll be years before we are free.
Maria lives with her husband and two young children. They were paying off their debts, when Covid struck and swept them them into deeper difficulties.
This is her story.
“In March, my husband lost his job. I am not working either, and we already had some debt before that, so had financial difficulties. When he lost his job, our situation got even worse.
“It took two months to get our Universal Credit, and in those two months the situation was really not good at all. We had to borrow from friends and family. My husband has now got a new job, but it will take some time to get rid of the debt.
“At the time when he was not working, it was hard. We hardly bought any food. I went to food banks, and used the local community pantry. There, you pay £4 and get at least ten products, but we hardly entered any shops; we just used local support for food.
“We have two young children, and with difficulty we’ve not bought any clothes or toys. We’ve had some donated from local organisations or friends.
Our mental health has suffered
“Mentally, it has affected me. Even before this pandemic started, my husband was quite depressed and had anxiety. He felt he was the one who had to support us, and provide for the family’s future, and the job he did have had been hard to get.
“He had been unemployed for 18 months before getting that. He was doing really well at work and had been there nearly two years, but they made him and some other people redundant in March when the pandemic hit. He was not furloughed, just made redundant.
“It affected his mental health and mine, especially at the beginning of March when things suddenly dropped and we could not see when things would improve. There were no jobs available, and then when they started to become available again the competition was so high.”
Maria spoke up to support the Reset The Debt campaign, which calls on the Government to help families burdened with Covid-related debt
“We used the food bank and the pantry and some friends gave us clothes for the children. We also borrowed from friends. Credit card bills, money from friends and a loan we already had mean our debt is about £15,000. It was around £7,000 but we’ve had to borrow from friends.
“Even though my husband has a job now, we still need help from the pantry and food bank. We really need to start paying the debts back.”
We don't want the children to know our struggles
“This time of year is very busy for us. As well as Christmas it’s also both the children’s birthdays. I want the children not to notice the struggles, and to still have a happy childhood. We have had some toys donated from friends, and luckily they are at the age where they won’t know if they’re new from a shop or not.
“Normally, once a year, we like to go and visit my family who live abroad, but I’ve not been for a while now, and the travel rules and our money situation this year mean we can’t.
“We’ve not been able to really buy anything for the house either. It needs some repairs but we can’t afford to repair anything. It’s very difficult; there are everyday comforts we can’t afford. The sink has a big crack in it but we can’t afford to replace it.”
“We were able to get a three-month mortgage holiday but not longer. Once you have a house and mortgage, you don’t expect things to go bad, but they did. We do have some very good friends and we want to pay them back as soon as possible.”
- ‘Maria’ is a pseudonym
Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield: 2020 AGM
Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield would like to invite you to their AGM which will take place on Wednesday 16 December 2020 at 7pm.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic , it will be held online via Zoom.
Our keynote speaker is Niall Cooper, Director of Church Action on Poverty.
Niall will tell us about ‘Dignity, agency and power: Building a movement to tackle poverty together’ and he will share some of the thinking around Church Action on Poverty’s new vision and strategy.
Please let us know if you would like to join the meeting by emailing the group secretary Briony Broome, using the link below.
Please also let us know if you think you need any help in order to be able to attend via Zoom.
We look forward to seeing you on 16 December.
Reset The Debt – email your MP now
Since the beginning of lockdown, an estimated six million people in the UK have fallen behind on one or more household bills, with poorest households hit the hardest.
This is an urgent problem that demands a solution. That’s why Church Action on Poverty has teamed up with the Joint Public Issues Team to ask the Chancellor to create a Jubilee Fund, to pay off and cancel unavoidable Covid debt for households in the UK.
You can help. Write to your MP today, and ask them to write to the Chancellor.
We need to:
- Raise these concerns about Covid-19 household debt and its impact on the poorest families.
- Find out how the government intends to address this urgent problem.
We need to make sure everyone has a stable platform from which to face the future. Add your voice to call on the UK Government to #ResetTheDebt.
Poetry v poverty: anthology raises vital new voices
Today is National Poetry Day, and we have an exciting announcement
We will launch a powerful collection of poetry about poverty and the pandemic this month, during the first Challenge Poverty Week in England and Wales.
Same Boat? brings together dozens of works by people with experience of poverty and supporters from across the movement to end poverty, including some debut writers. We’re announcing the launch today, on World Poetry Day.
The book brings new perspectives around poverty and challenges many of the prevailing myths and clichés, and challenges us all to ensure that society after the pandemic is more just and compassionate. We know we can build back better and the outpouring of kindness and community has been heartening – but it cannot be taken for granted. Simply reading the poetry in this anthology is “a radical act of empathy”.
Launch event
The project has been coordinated by Matt Sowerby, who was poet in residence at Church Action in Poverty from the beginning of lockdown until September. He facilitated workshops and open-mic events online and oversaw the production of the anthology. Participants were asked to contribute a poem reflecting their experiences of lockdown and poverty, or the impact of Covid-19 on themselves, their families or communities
A launch event will be held on Thursday 15 October, during Challenge Poverty Week.
In their introduction, the editing panel of Barbara Adlerova, Ben Pearson, Jayne Gosnall, Matt Sowerby and Penny Walters, write:
“While the term ‘poverty’ is often understood as a financial problem, these poems suggest that the word is more of a blanket term for numerous different ‘poverties.’ These include social poverty, poverty of choice, psychological poverty, poverty of autonomy, digital poverty, poverty of access and poverty of opportunity among others. The book also takes a closer look at some of the people behind the statistics. Rejecting the myth that those in poverty are helpless, several poets choose to explore the power that their experiences have given them.”
Responses to abuse, homelessness and stigma
Works include i have a voice by Penny Walters of Newcastle, which reflects on her determination to speak out against poverty, despite having “abused and berated downcast / shunned”, and 100 days by Earl Charlton, which reframes his experience from that of victim to expert. He writes: “being homeless before and living in social isolation, gave me the knowledge and sense to beat this complicated situation”.
Ben Pearson’s Yellow Sticker pinpoints the stigma around poverty, while Melanie Rogers’s My Mask finds relevance to mental health in the face coverings that the pandemic has made routine.
The Same Boat? title reflects the question of whether we are all in the same boat during the pandemic. The question is also addressed in a short film of the same name, written by Ellis Howard & directed by Brody Salmon, which is being released on October 13.
More information:
- Same Boat? will be launched on October 15th. Sign up here.
- To discuss the book or if you have media queries, email benp@church-poverty.org.uk
- Challenge Poverty Week England and Wales runs from October 12 to 18. For more information, visit challengepoverty.co.uk
Sheffield Church Action on Poverty 2020 Pilgrimage
Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield's annual Pilgrimage event will take place online, on 7 October.
For more than a decade, Sheffield Church Action on Poverty has organised an annual pilgrimage designed to raise awareness and understanding of how poverty is affecting people in Sheffield.
Each pilgrimage has involved a circular walk around a specific area of Sheffield, stopping at different faith-based initiatives which aim to reduce the effects of poverty in the city to hear about their work.
Changed circumstances mean that we can’t take you to the initiatives, so we are organising a ‘Virtual Pilgrimage’ to bring the initiatives to you.
We’re inviting you to take part by viewing short videos covering the work of several initiatives and then, if you want to ask questions or find out more, take part in a Zoom meeting with project organisers.
This year we’ll be visiting:
- Help Us Help, an initiative to help the homeless and rough sleepers
- Manor Church and Community Project
- Parson Cross Initiative, PXI, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary
- Attercliffe and Darnall Mission.
Be open to being challenged and changed by what you see and hear by viewing the videos and taking part in the Zoom conference.
The videos can be viewed now by clicking the link below. The Zoom meeting will take place on Wednesday 7 October at 7:30pm.
If you wish to attend the Zoom meeting please contact Briony Broome by clicking the button below, or call 07801 532954.
The Collective, Episode 2 – Community responses
The second episode of The Collective, exploring Community responses to the crisis, is now online. Watch the full episode here:
The Collective is an hour of inspiring stories of collective action to promote dignity, agency and power.
In this episode we heard how communities in different parts of the country have been coming together to tackle the challenges posed by the Covid crisis.
Penny, who is based in Byker in Newcastle told us about how the mutual aid group there allowed members of the community to support each other, and how they’ve maintained a sense of pride and community spirit throughout the crisis.
From the North-East to the South West, Andrew told us about the Cornwall Independent Poverty Forum’s report, A Fair and Just Future for Cornwall, and how communities can speak truth to power.
Purple Shoots, who work with Self-Reliant Groups in South Wales and the south west of England, came up with a really creative way of building a sense of community between the groups this summer, even though they couldn’t meet in person – a virtual village show.
Gemma is a grassroots member of the Manchester Poverty Truth Commission. She talked about how they have been speaking truth to power and shared the Commission’s reflections about what we as a society should and should not accept as ‘normal’.
And finally, Matt Sowerby told us about the poetry anthology he has been helping put together called Same Boat. This is a collection of poems recording different people’s experiences during lockdown.
The next episode of The Collective will be 3rd November on Zoom and our Facebook page. It will explore issues surrounding disabilities and poverty.