annual review 2011

Where is the church today?

ld t of the angst is the state of the wor and the thing that is causing mos world is in a pretty perilous state in major towns and cities. The The test camps world setting up anti-capitalist pro daches, as this cathedral is economy. We see people across the the Church of England a few hea St Pauls Cathedral has caused is changed into stocks and camp outside Londons ey to enter it. Some of this money action and people gladly pay mon red the temple and threw out seen as a tourist attr us of the story where Jesus ente l markets which should remind shares in financia the money-changers. een rich and poor, a campaign to Close the Gap betw rch Action on Poverty is running Chu fairer. The people who equal healthier, happier, safer and and build a society that is more world have the in other towns and cities across the are protesting outside St Pauls and same aim. ety today, and s to make her voice heard in soci It is up to the church in all its form ct the comfortable. mfort the afflicted and affli remember these great words: Co
Revd Lewis Rose is chair of Church Action on Poverty

sustainable livelihoods
thrive
Its great to see ordinary people making a difference and becoming extraordinary people

We aim to enable people in poverty to develop more sustainable livelihoods: income security and paid employment which promotes dignity and justice.

www.thrive-stockton.org.uk

Last year, our local partner organisation in Stockton-on-Tees, Thrive, uncovered huge dissatisfaction amongst customers with the actions of a high-cost lending company, high credit charges, poor customer service, lack of transparency in what customers owed and so on. Most local projects would respond by encouraging customers to get help from the local Citizens Advice Bureau and seek redress on an individual basis. But having been trained in community organising, the response of Thrives community leaders was to challenge the way the company itself operated at the very top. With our help, local people produced a spoof TV advert (www.ripofftv.net), which was watched by over 1,000 people on YouTube. Our supporters in churches across the country then emailed and telephoned the companys chief executive, politely demanding that he meet with Thrive to respond to their concerns. Finally the boss agreed to fly his senior management team from Cardiff to Stockton, to meet with six of his customers. Far from finding confrontation, he accepted the concerns of some of his most long-standing customers, and acceded to all of Thrives demands. Not only that he agreed to work with Thrive to bring together a roundtable of high-cost lenders along with the Office of Fair Trading to build consensus within the industry on a way forward. This roundtable, chaired by the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, has now met three times, and will shortly be agreeing an industry-wide code for responsible lending, which will benefit more than a million people on low incomes who are customers of high cost lending companies.

european year for combating poverty

20 a week would be like winning the lottery oh, the things Id spend it on, clearing debt to start with
Church Action on Poverty actively supported the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, running Listening Campaigns in Yorkshire and the North West, and working in partnership with Community Links on a national programme of activities focused on tackling working-age poverty. Over 45 people attended training events on participation, leadership and empowerment in Manchester, Bolton, Leeds and Hull. A further 24 people attended specialist media training events in Manchester and Leeds. 18 local groups across Yorkshire and the North West were supported to undertake local listening campaigns in their communities. We undertook research into the impact of the extra costs of poverty on the lives of low-income families in Yorkshire. This involved in-depth interviews with 17 families in the village of Goldthorpe, South Yorkshire. The research was carried out in partnership with South Yorkshire Credit Union, and written up in the report Paying Over the Odds? Real-life experiences of the poverty premium, which was launched at the Yorkshire Regional EY2010 Assembly in December 2010. There was an opportunity for all those who had taken part to come to our end-ofyear Assemblies in Manchester and Bradford, featuring presentations and stories from those taking part in the year, including a specially commissioned participatory drama by WatersEdge Arts in Manchester, involving seven actors who themselves had direct personal experience of poverty and exclusion.

sustainable livelihoods 

ody. Thrive is open to everyb

We all have a voice,

it. and we should use

Thrive commun ity leader Kath Carter received a Sheila McKec hnie Foundation ca mpaigning aw ard for her work on Thrive s Rip-off TV ca mpaign (see opposite ). Here she is w ith Channel 4 newscaster Jon Snow, rece iving her award.

a voice to people in poverty

We want all poor and marginalised people to have an effective voice in shaping decisions which affect their lives.

ople It shows that young pe

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The Over to YOUt h project in Fife re cently demonstrated th e power of particip atory budgeting to give people a voice. The project was op en to young peop le from across Glenrothes an area which fa ces some of the worst depriva tion and poverty in Scotland. The picture shows repr esentatives from Glenrothes High, a local scho ol which took part . At a special even t, young people pr esented their ideas for proj ects to make Glen rothes a better place for young pe ople and the com munity. Each project was cons idered and then th ere was a very interactive speed dating session the chance to get a final point ov er or have a projec t scrutinised. Votes were then cast using real ba llot boxes you could not vote fo r your own projec t. 11 groups received funding through the project, and mee tings were organi sed to help the unsuccessful grou ps to secure fund ing or support elsewhere.

a voice to people in poverty

community pride
Our Community Pride Unit (CPU) continues to work in North West England. We aim to increase levels of consultation, civic activism and participation, and take-up of community leadership roles. We want citizens particularly those from marginalised and disadvantaged communities to build the skills and confidence they need to participate in society. We equip people to press for change that helps their communities to grow socially, economically and politically. CPU played a leading role in the Salford Take Part programme, building the skills and confidence of local people in Salford so they can pursue civic activism, community leadership and lay governance roles. We have helped people and organisations to understand and overcome the barriers to participation. Community development workers in Salford say our approach is unique in enabling participants to direct their own agenda truly bottom-up.

www.communitypride.org.uk

changemakers
We have developed and consolidated our community organising initiatives in Manchester and Stockton (see the previous section on Thrive). We are helping local people to gain the skills and confidence to build a sustainable citizens organisation, and to act publicly and effectively on their issues to bring about positive change in their communities. Action by local people, supported by our team and publicised by mainstream media, can be a powerful and effective combination in bringing about change for disadvantaged and marginalised people. We helped carers in Manchester to run a Carers Hearing and get major concessions from public sector managers about carers being involved in the design and delivery of services for carers and their charges. We also supported tenants in Collyhurst to organise a major public event where they persuaded councillors and MPs to secure the funds for urgent and long overdue building repairs. www.changemakersmanchester.org.uk

participatory budgeting
Our Participatory Budgeting Unit has continued to encourage and support the development of participatory budgeting (PB) initiatives across the UK enabling local people to influence decisions about the spending of public money. The number of local PB places is now in the region of 150, and it has continued to spread to new sectors and models. PB has an impressive capacity to mobilise large and diverse numbers of people in meeting together (often for the first time), listening to each other, understanding their perspectives and taking decisions in the interests of the community as a whole. It is not uncommon for several hundred local people to attend PB events. PB has featured in two articles in the Guardian and in two Radio 4 programmes, as well as generating significant local news coverage. It has continued to be referred to favourably by government ministers. A case study based on two residents from Manton is to be included in the revised version of a highly successful book on community development by Professor Margaret Ledwith.

www.participatorybudgeting.org.uk

mobilising churches
close the gap
This year saw the launch of a major new campaign which will be our key focus in the next three years. We are mobilising churches to Give, Act and Pray together to Close the Gap between rich and poor. We know that together, we can build a more equal society. Happier. Healthier. Safer. Fairer. The campaign is enthusiastically supported by numerous national churches and other Christian organisations. We have already recorded thousands of Pledges to Give, Act and Pray in support of the campaign calls: Fair Taxes, Fair Pay, Fair Prices and a Fair Say.

We mobilise churches to work with others to overcome poverty. We want the churches to actively promote a bias to the poor, both internally and externally.

www.church-poverty.org.uk/ closethegap

action week
For Poverty & Homelessness Action Week 2011, we asked churches across the UK to tackle prejudice and ignorance around poverty and exclusion by running events and service on the theme Who Counts? As well as worship and event resources, for the first time we also produced a prayer calendar with video stories and ideas for further action, which was widely used. Action Week becomes larger every year this time, over 200 events took place. Thousands of new people become supporters of our work as a result of taking part in Action Week. It also leads to the creation of vital new projects and initiatives in many churches.

local groups

www.actionweek.org.uk

Our local groups have a direct impact on poverty at grassroots level. In 201011, our Barnsley group set up an award-winning Starter Packs project. Our Northern Ireland group launched the Heat or Eat appeal which raised vital funds to help people affected by fuel poverty. On Merseyside, our local group set up a Question Time event and challenged local MPs to act on poverty issues. The North East group ran a project with young people looking at Barriers to Employment. And in Sheffield, the group helped to coordinate Christian campaigns against spending cuts.
Find your own local group at www.church-poverty.org.uk/groups

Our Northern Ireland group launch their Heat or Eat? appeal

mp accountability network
We now have over 100 groups committed to meet regularly with their MPs, and hold them accountable for their actions to tackle poverty. This ongoing engagement is now a vital part of our campaigns. During the year, we have briefed the groups regularly on important issues, and they have had really productive meetings with MPs. The Network has helped ensure the successful launch of an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty.

www.church-poverty.org.uk/mpan

mobilising churches

right: Frances Ballin (National Justice Paul Marriott (DeP and Peace Networ aul UK); Kate Gree k); n MP; James North Churches Joint Pu (Free blic Issues Team); Revd Sivakumar Ra (Baptist Union); Rt jagopalan Revd Thomas Mc Mahon (RC Bisho Brentwood); Rt Re p of vd David Walker (CoE Bishop of Du Christy-Anna Erring dley); ton (Methodist Yo uth President); Ala Thornton (Church n Action on Poverty ); Revd Leo Osborn of Methodist Conf (President erence)

In January, church leaders of many denominations gathered in Westm inster and made a public Pledge of support for our ca mpaign to Close the Gap. They handed in a letter to David Ca meron, expressing their commitment to Cl ose the Gap between rich and poor, and asking about the Coaliti Governments plan on s to do the same. They stated: We consider it is our duty to speak up on behalf of the poorest an d most vulnerable especially at a time when they ar e suffering the co nsequences of th economic crisis an e d public spending cuts. Left to

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Finance
Where our money came from in 201011
Grants Donations Campaigns and events Membership subscriptions Bank interest Total 689,784 79,551 37,030 50,767 121 857,253

Acknowledgements
Council of Management 201011
Frances Ballin, Elspeth Brighton, Kathleen Carter, Jenny Cooke, Millicent Dews, Julie Green, Helen Hood, Alison Jackson, Bandi Mbubi, Norbert Mbu-Mputu, Brian ONeill, Lewis Rose, Adrian Smith, Rose Tyrrell, Jackie Worthington.

Staff and volunteers 201011

What we spent it on

Fundraising Governance Thrive European Year for Combating Poverty Community Pride ChangeMakers Participatory budgeting Close the Gap Action Week Campaigns, events and other projects Total

32,609 10,691 50,703 96,927 160,769 156,294 266,752 12,118 5,166 129,559 921,588

Mary Akumu, Ade Arogundade, Muhammad Bhana, Daisy Black, Oluwadunni Boyinbode, Greg Brown, Niall Cooper, Roland Dale, Sarah Dumpleton, Chinenuye Ejiofor, Liz Firth, Geoff Fletcher, Janet Gee, Christina Gonzales, Amanda Hewitt, Ruth Jackson, Andrea Jones, Ocia Koranteng, Jenny Lazarus, Hannah Lucas, Helen McNally, Sebastian Morello, Chalo Mvula, Liam Purcell, Olive Sabiiti, Adam Sharpe, Lorraine Shaw, Anne Stewart, David Stott, Alan Thornton, George Waterhouse, Mark Waters,.

Funders

Support our vital work www.church-poverty.org.uk/give

Our work is made possible by the generous support of many partners, donors and funders, including: Baptist Union, Church Urban Fund, Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Work and Pensions, Faiths in Action, Friends Provident Foundation, John Laing Charitable Trust, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, MB Reckitt Trust, The Methodist Church, National Lottery Awards for All, Oxfam, United Reformed Church, and Waterside Trust.

Find out more and get involved at www.church-poverty.org.uk!

Dale House, 35 Dale Street, Manchester M1 2HF Telephone 0161 236 9321 Fax 0161 237 5359 info@church-poverty.org.uk @churchpoverty facebook.com/churchpoverty
Company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales, number 3780243. Registered charity number 1079986.