Cl pu ose ll- th ou e G t o ap n b pa ri ge efi s 7 ng 1 : 0

autumn 2011

Methodists and Catholics Pledge to Close the Gap!

get your church involved in the campaign to Close the Gap!

You could do it by planning a worship service, giving a talk, distributing leaflets, or running a workshop.

Free resources are available to help you: posters, flyers, video clips, talk outlines, multimedia presentations, worship resources and complete workshops. Theres free training too.

<Get the church pack at www. church-poverty.org.uk/act/ resources or call 0161 236 9321 and ask for a pack. <Pledge to spread the word and find out about training workshops by visiting www.church-poverty.org. uk/spreadtheword or calling Liam on 0161 236 9321.

annual conference 2011

Leeds Christian Institute 19 November 2011 10:00 am 4:00pm

< Celebrate our achievements learn how we can make a difference when we call Give, Act and Pray together < Hear inspiring speakers including Right Revd John Packer (Bishop of Ripon and Leeds) and Revd Michael Taylor (former head of Christian Aid) < Get new skills and tools to help you Close the Gap in your own church and community Book your place now! 0161 236 9321 or info@church-poverty.org.uk

its timely to Close the Gap

Our National Coordinator, Niall Cooper, has been recruiting support for our campaign
enthusiastically signed up to Close the Gap. And in July, the National Justice and Peace Network signed up too. We have now secured over 3,000 Pledges to Give, Act or Pray but with your help, we could make this many, many more... As you will read in this newsletter, we not only know the scale of the problem, but can also celebrate successes in our work challenging the unjust treatment of people seeking sanctuary; tackling irresponsible lending practices; ensuring the voices of people in poverty are heard in the corridors of power. For nearly 30 years now, we have been clear that the task of the churches is to enable all people to enjoy life in all its fullness, to speak out prophetically and challenge unjust structures which deny people this God-given opportunity. Its great to know that the churches are with us in this task.

ome things we do because we feel that we have to do them. Some things we do because it feels like the right time to do them. Our Close the Gap campaign is hitting the button on both counts... Not only is the UK more unequal than at any time in at least the last 30 years, but the gap between rich and poor is continuing to widen. Just as spending cuts begin to bite, we read that bankers bonuses last year reached a staggering 14 billion. The UK generates great wealth, but distributes it unequally. This is not just or sustainable. The message of Close the Gap is not only needed but is striking a chord within the churches. It was fantastic to sit in on the session at Methodist Conference in Southport in July, at which the Methodist Church

Church Action on Poverty

Dale House 35 Dale Street Manchester M1 2HF

T: 0161 236 9321 F: 0161 237 5359 E: info@church-poverty.org.uk W: www.church-poverty.org.uk Registered Charity no 1079986 Company no 3780243

give

< Become a member See page 16 < Find out what your donations achieve See page 12

act

in this issue
4 News and events 5 Act: budgets Reports on The Peoples Budget & Our Cash Our Call 6 Supporters Reports from local groups 7 Close the Gap Pull-out campaign briefing 11 Pray: Doing the right thing Reflection by Paul Morrison 12 Give: Celebrating success News of our recent achievements 14 In progress: The Salford Apprentice Exciting work by our Community Pride Unit 16 Pray: Seeds of Justice A prayer for our Close the Gap prayer community

< Get news updates by Facebook, Twitter or email www.church-poverty. org.uk/news < Call for a Peoples Budget See page 5 < Join the MP Accountability Network www.church-poverty. org.uk/mpan

pray

< Join the Close the Gap prayer community www.church-poverty.org. uk/pray

spark news from Church Action on Poverty autumn 2011

news
Catholic Justice & Peace Network Pledges to Close the Gap
At their conference in July 2011, the National Justice & Peace Network (NJPN) made a Pledge to Close the Gap and encouraged their supporters to do the same. The conference was about Justice in the Workplace, and attendees were challenged to campaign for a Living Wage, fair working conditions and a narrower gap between rich and poor! More than 300 activists were present as Church Action on Poverty campaigner Kath Carter gave a powerful speech about the need to Close the Gap. Anne Peacey, chair of NJPN, then publicly made her own Pledge to Close the Gap.

Methodist Church Pledges to Close the Tax Gap

Robin Hood visits Thrive

events
Close the Gap: annual conference 2011
10am 4pm, 19 November, Leeds This years conference is hosted by our local group in Leeds. Come along and learn how you can get your own church working to Close the Gap. Use the flyer or call 0161 236 9321 ext 1 to book your place.

At their conference on 6 July, the Methodist Church voted to support enthusiastically our campaign to Close the Gap, and church leaders made a public Pledge to do their part. They also issued a statement saying that tax avoidance is morally unacceptable. The Church called on the UK government and multinational businesses to end tax avoidance schemes which impoverish the vulnerable. They pointed out that as public services are being cut, the injustice of tax avoidance is becoming more acute. Having a team of expensive lawyers doesnt absolve you of the moral responsibility to pay a fair level of tax, said Paul Morrison, Public Issues Policy Adviser. Taxation shouldnt be a game of strategy where you win by paying the least. Paying tax is a moral obligation it is unacceptable to engage in complex financial arrangements in order to wriggle out of paying your fair share. The Conference also asked all Methodists to examine their own practices to ensure they pay all the taxes they owe, both legally and morally.

Campaigners for the Robin Hood Tax recently visited our Thrive project in Stockton-on-Tees. They were gathering evidence of how a simple tax on financial transactions between banks could generate enough income to remove the need for damaging cuts in public spending. Robins Merry Men talked to Tanya from Thrive about how hard the cuts are making life for people in low-paid jobs. They produced a short video, which you can watch online at http:// youtu.be/fKu7DADb5S0. Were delighted to have helped make the case for the Robin Hood Tax, alongside our own campaigning to Close the Tax Gap (see www. church-poverty.org.uk/ closethegap/whatarewecallingfor/ fairtax).

Tanya fr o

m Thriv e

Close the Gap speaker training workshops

Regional workshops will be taking place in many parts of the UK this autumn, to train people to get their churches or groups involved in our Close the Gap campaign. If you would like to help us get more churches making Pledges, or would like more information, please contact Liam on 0161 236 9321 or liamp@ church-poverty.org.uk for more details.

Breaking Barriers: Poverty & Homelessness Action Week 2012

29 Jan 5 Feb 2012, UK-wide Resources will be available soon to help you plan a Poverty Action Sunday service, or another event to help break the barriers that trap people in poverty. Use the enclosed flyer to order your resources, or visit www. actionweek.org.uk to download them free.

act

help us call for a Peoples Budget!

Our Campaigns Officer Alan Thornton introduces our new campaign which will help community groups get a much bigger say in how local budgets are spent.

t is only fair that we get a say in how our money is spent on the things that matter most to us. But whilst a few councils and public bodies have been excellent at giving us a say in how money is spent, there are still deserts where ordinary people get little or no say. It is wrong that marginalised and deprived communities are sometimes forgotten or invisible in the decisions on how public money is spent. We are not hard to reach, but hard to hear. Participatory budgeting (PB) gives local people a say on how public budgets should be spent in our neighbourhoods. It has been tested over 150 times in the last decade all over Britain. In Brazil where the idea first developed, hundreds of thousands of people contribute every year to setting the priorities and commissioning public services. As a result, the gap between rich and poor has narrowed. We are stronger together when we pool our local knowledge and experience. PB gives a better view that is not dominated by the loudest or best-connected voices. To have meaning to ordinary people, budgetholders need to recognise that a bigger society is about giving us a bigger say over budgets, spending priorities and local services.

The Peoples Budget is running 10 workshops in 2011 to help people like you understand how you can fight a successful campaign to get your council, health organisation, police force or housing provider to give you a significant say. To find out more, see www.peoplesbudget.org.uk or ring Alan Thornton on 0161 236 9321.

our cash our call

To be in the room with all

Our Manchester Community Organiser Andrea Jones has been using budgets to get people involved in community action.

n 16 July, 260 people came together at Old Trafford community centre to decide how 30,000 should be spent to make Old Trafford a better place. Manchester ChangeMakers is using PB to get more people involved in community organising. The whole event was organised by local people. Residents pitched their bids for funding. Then, after a period of discussion, everyone present cast their votes and the projects with the most votes were funded. Successful projects included a sensory garden, clearing up a back alley and making a community space, a community panto, and music and DJ workshops.

sections of the commu

positive energy, was truly memorable

nity

represented, and to feel such

spark news from Church Action on Poverty autumn 2011

local group reports

Supporter Relations Manager Liam Purcell reports on exciting work being done by local Church Action on Poverty groups.
This summer, Shepherds Dene, an Anglican retreat centre in the Tyne valley, invited Church Action on Poverty North East to work together with them on a mini-series of events exploring inequality and the Run your own need to Close the Gap between rich and poor. discussions We held three events on Sunday afternoons using our in May, June and July. Local group members Close the shared their experience of what debt and cuts Gap church mean for people at the grassroots. We spoke of pack visit local initiatives to redress the imbalance like MP www.churchaccountability groups, Credit Unions, and assistance poverty. for destitute asylum-seekers. We looked at the org.uk/act/ gap between kingdom values and our society. We resources or used case studies from Cedarwood Trust on North call 0161 236 Tyneside to explore the human cost of living in a 9321 ext 1 to very unequal society. We explored how the kind of get your copy! society which measures success by material wealth destroys trust and human relationships. In the third session, a panel helped us explore the different elements which could contribute to a better society. The panel included retreat centre staff, a business leader, a local councillor, and Greg Brown from Church Action on Povertys Thrive project. In all it has been a very enriching experience. It has helped Shepherds Dene to incorporate a concern for social justice into its work, without losing its ethos as a Halifax churc retreat centre. hes come tog ether against povert Our partnership y! Were delight with them will ed to announ ce that Churc Together in H continue: we hes alifax have de cided to oper a new local Ch are planning ate as urch Action on Poverty group. They will be ci roundtable rculating info rmation abou campaigns an discussions and t our d planning se rvices on pove themes. They more events, and rty re also discuss ing a possible conference on the group have Poverty in Ca lderdale for au 2012. been offered free tumn If youre in th time for our own e Halifax area get involved, and would lik reflection. please contact e to John Hoyle on jmhoyle@btin Pat Devlin, john. ternet.com, or visit www.chu poverty.org.u Secretary of Church rchk/groups/Hal ifax. If youd like to Action on Poverty form a local gr wed be happ oup in your ar North East y to help co ea, ntact Liam on 9321 or liamp@ 0161 236 church-pover ty.org.uk.

networking for equality in the north east

best community resource in Barnsley!

When Barnsley Church Action on Poverty learned that there are many vulnerable people in the borough who move into a property with nothing, their response was to create a Starter Packs project, which was launched in September 2010. Member churches donate items to provide a pack of the basic household goods generally regarded as necessities for a dignified standard of living. Duvets, pillows, toasters and kettles are purchased from monetary donations. A Starter Pack contains bedding, pots and pans, cleaning materials and toiletries, crockery and cutlery. Clients are referred by local agencies and the referring person collects the pack on their behalf from a base at one of the churches. To date, 55 packs have been handed over. In June the project was placed in the final three of two categories in the Barnsley MBC Excellence Awards, and was the outright winner of the Virtual College Award for the Best Community Resource.

g Thank you for supplyin starter packs to Steve

they have really been helpful

ey really and Aaron, th appreciated them and

WHY ITS TIME TO

last 30 at least the ger now than at any time in the en rich and poor in the UK is lar The gap betwe wo UK ; therld; es of lity in lity in elo dev world inequainequathe devthe ped eloped has on has on of hes highest rat The UK e of theehigthe t rates of last 30 yea UK years. The rs. poor and the ally. The bec are becoming ric the e rich arerich oming richer andher s but dis but distributes it un. Th h wealthtributes it unequallyequ the UK wealt creates create ther the jus sus r sustainab is neijustrnor t notainable. le. poor are becoming poorer This are becoming poorer. This. is nei not just the poor. Research
ne, rich and the poor is bad for everyo The increasing gap between the The Spirit Level related to income inequality (see t many social problems are directly has shown tha st and low social ess, obesity, imprisonment, mistru kinson & Kate Pickett). Mental illn by Richard Wil widest. gap between rich and poor is at its all worse in countries where the mobility are

If you oppress the poor, you off

ness. We must speak out all people to enjoy life in all its full task of the churches is to enable The this God-given opportunity. ust structures which deny people phetically and challenge the unj pro than others: ce where some people have more t the Kingdom of God is not a pla Scripture is clear tha d the lifted up the humble. He has fille n rulers from their thrones but has He has brought dow 1:46-55) sent the rich away empty. (Luke hungry with good things but has

end their maker

campaign can I know this

bring down the gap

Joe Nagle, e-campaigne r

between rich and poor

WHAT ARE WE
The lowest-earning 10% of people in the UK pay 39% of their incomes in tax, while the top 10% pay just 35%. only 35%. Although high earners pay higher rates of income tax, taxes like VAT and fuel tax hit lower earners harder. Wealthy individuals and corporations can avoid paying much of their tax altogether. Huge amounts are lost through legal tax avoidance. This is big business and is entirely legal. But its hardly moral. 45-100 billion is lost each year through tax avoidance and evasion. Every pound avoided in tax is a pound less to spend on childcare, social care, health or education. At a time when spending cuts are having a real and damaging impact on the lives of some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the country, it is morally indefensible for some of Britains richest companies to be avoiding paying their fair share of UK taxes. We are teaming up with Christian Aids Trace the Tax campaign to stop tax dodging by increasing tax transparency.

FAIR TAXES

< The tax system must make businesses and wealthy individuals pay their fair share < The government must tackle tax avoidance < This would reduce the need for damaging cuts in public spending

2010 research by Save the Children found that it can cost an extra 1,300 a year to be poor in the UK. People on lower incomes pay a premium for: < Fuel because they often use prepayment meters which charge a higher rate. < Insurance because people in poorer communities are viewed as a higher risk. < Food because poor communities have limited access to affordable, fresh and healthy food. Credit and banking are particularly important issues in the price gap. People on low incomes cannot get credit from banks, and are forced to use doorstep lenders and hire-purchase companies which charge interest of up to 3,500%APR. People become trapped in poverty, unable to pay their debts. We are working with the Co-operative Bank and other lenders to identify affordable alternatives which do not charge a poverty premium.

FAIR PRICES

< Businesses must stop charging higher prices to their poorest customers to their poorest customers

< Government can cap lending companies charges < Poor families could save up to 1,300 a year!

CALLING FOR?
Bankers and company executives in the FTSE 100 are paid astronomical sums, even when their companies fail and have to be bailed out by the tax-payer. At the same time, many companies pay poverty wages to their lowest-paid staff. The Minimum Wage is too low, and does not keep pace with rises in the cost of living so work is not always a route out of poverty. The disparity between top and bottom pay the pay ratio - is an issue in itself. Many private companies pay their directors 100 or 200 times as much as their lowest-paid workers and the gap is increasing. We are calling on churches to lead the way by paying all their employees a Living Wage of 7.60 an hour (8.30 an hour in London), considerably higher than the 5.93 Minimum Wage. Several denominations have already committed to do so. We will also call for all employers to publish their pay ratios.

FAIR PAY

< Employers should publish their pay ratios and avoid excessive pay gaps < Employers should commit to paying a Living Wage < This will reduce poverty at source

People in disadvantaged communities often get very little say in what happens in their area. Even when regeneration initiatives take place, local people are often not consulted. Statistics show that the lowest earners are also the least likely to participate in elections, politics and civic life in general. The real poor in a relatively prosperous Western society are those without sufficient means to take part in the life of the community they cannot participate in the formation of public policies that might protect them from the adverse consequences of market forces they are excluded from the community, and they are denied the rights of membership. Their choices are circumscribed; they have The Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales little personal freedom. Our Peoples Budget campaign will enable local people to have a direct say in how our money is spent by public agencies.

A FAIR SAY

< Poorer communities must have a stronger voice especially in decisions about budgets and spending < Politicians must be held to account for their decisions and policies

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

If we Give, Act and Pray together, y. we can build a more equal societ Happier. Healthier. Safer. Fairer. ernight. It Closing the Gap wont happen ov passionate needs a movement of committed, es each year, people. By securing 10,000 Pledg vement. we know that we can build that mo www.churchYou can make Pledges online at 21 and ask for poverty.org.uk, or call 0161 236 93 Pledge leaflets. y Please Pledge to Give, Act or Pra and ask your friends to do it too

Free resources are available to he lp you: posters, flyers, video clips, talk ou tlines, multimedia presentations, worsh ip resources and complete worksho ps. Theres free training too. <Get the church pack at www.ch urchpoverty.org.uk/act/resources or call 0161 236 9321 and ask for a pack . <Pledge to spread the word and find out about training workshops by visiting www.church-poverty.or g. uk/spreadtheword or calling Lia m on 0161 236 9321.

You could do it by planning a wo rship service, giving a talk, distributin g leaflets, or running a workshop.

Please get your church involved in the campaign to Close the Gap.

pray

11

doing the right thing

Paul Morrison of the Free Churches Joint Public Issues Team says that we should not give people what they deserve... although we do not always do the right thing, we are still loved, still valuable and still made in the image of God
Despite many attempts, the hunt for the undeserving poor has never found large enough numbers of people to save significant amounts of money. This enthusiastically publicised scroungerhunt has served to stigmatise the people who least deserve it and have little opportunity to fight back. The unjust stigma is also used to penalise those who clearly have done the right thing the reason being that if you just take money from the undeserving, it doesnt save much dont be fooled into thinking it does. But even if making moral judgements on past behaviour was a fruitful exercise, I would still argue for a benefit system that focuses on meeting needs rather than judging behaviour. Some of the most compelling gospel stories are of Jesus encounters with people as he went about his ministry. My reading of these encounters shows Jesus to be profoundly uninterested in someones past commitment to doing the right thing. Jesus was unimpressed by the Pharisees who made a fetish out of doing the right thing. Yet those whom society judged harshly, those who hadnt done the right thing (for example, Zacchaeus or the woman at the well), seem to emerge much better from their encounters with Jesus. Jesus seemed much more concerned with meeting the needs of the person he met than with judging them on past behaviour. Our liturgy says we have all sinned and fallen short. In past times Christians would describe themselves as wretched or sinners, to acknowledge the fact that even the best of us have not always done the right thing. The very heart of the Christian faith is the acknowledgement that although we do not always do the right thing, we are still loved, still valuable and still acknowledged as made in the image of God. A Christian who wishes others the full consequences of doing the wrong thing should really ask themselves if this is a rule they would be happy to see applied to themselves.
This article originally appeared on Praxis, the blog of the Joint Public Issues Team (http://jointpublicissues. blogspot.com).

he quest to identify those impoverished people who are not to blame for their poverty from the other poor people who by inference are receiving the poverty they deserve is as old as the hills. Rowan Williams wrote recently of a quiet resurgence of the seductive language of deserving and undeserving poor within the political debate. He was right to do so. The phrase deserving and undeserving is no longer used but there are many codes in its place. The new acceptable discriminator is to talk of people who do the right thing. The phrase crosses the political divide: David Cameron used the phrase seven times in one pre-election debate; Ed Miliband used it when suggesting some deserving people should have preference in going up housing waiting lists. It is an obvious phrase, which tests well in focus groups, but its implications are, in my view, both socially damaging and profoundly contrary to Christian teaching. The Government has now begun to haphazardly convert the rhetoric of those who do the right thing into policy. Initially, benefit caps limiting the total amount of benefit which could be received were to apply to all. As time has passed, those doing the right thing have been exempted the old, the disabled, the war widow(er)s, and other special cases. Every housing benefit claim will be reduced by mathematical formula, but now a discretionary 200 million will go to those considered to be unjustly affected... The welfare cuts are gaining similar, grossly under-funded, exemptions on a daily basis. The problem is that it is easy for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to supply examples of the feckless poor to be derided in the pages of the Sunday Telegraph but it is much harder to define a group as undeserving with any degree of justice or accuracy. Whole categories are labelled so that the majority of the public believe them undeserving (alcoholics, for instance) but talk to your minister, or others who work with addicts, and very quickly it becomes much harder to use words like undeserving.

spark news from Church Action on Poverty autumn 2011

celebrating success
we argued for the Living Wage we made BrightHouse listen
In May we held a workshop jointly with the Church Urban Fund, where four leading proponents of the Living Wage from the UK and the US shared their views and experiences. Visit www.church-poverty. org.uk/livingwage to see video interviews with the speakers and download a four-page report. Or call 0161 236 9321 to request a printed report.

We know that when we all Give, Act and Pray together, we really can make a difference. Here are a few of the things Church Action on Poverty projects and supporters have achieved in recent months.
One of the biggest legal loan sharks had been refusing to attend the roundtables on responsible lending we are holding with high-cost lenders and the Office of Fair Trading. So hundreds of our supporters sent emails and made phone calls to the BrightHouse chief executive, asking him why he didnt want to be a responsible lender. Thrive supporters (pictured) took the same message to the BrightHouse store in Stockton-on-Tees. When the story was featured in the press, we finally received their promise to attend. The meetings have led to the creation of an industry code to encourage responsible lending by these companies. Lenders have also agreed to work with us on data sharing, which could help customers to build a good credit history so they can access mainstream financial services.

we challenged cashlessness

Our ChangeMakers project in Manchester has been doing work with people seeking sanctuary on the issue of Azure Cards. These are electronic top-up cards that some people seeking asylum have to use to buy food and essentials. People were being embarrassed, humiliated and made the subject of prejudice by some shop staff. We worked with senior store managers to tackle this. Stores have made public apologies to people seeking asylum, and we are providing training material so that staff understand the plight of people seeking asylum, and know how to process the cards properly. We are also setting up a buddying scheme, whereby volunteers use the Azure Cards for their own shopping and give asylum-seekers cash in return. The Bishop of Manchester will launch the scheme publicly in the autumn. If you live in the Manchester area and could be a buddy, please contact Mark Waters on 0161 236 9321 ext 4 or markw@church-poverty.org.uk.

we told the story of communities facing cuts

we gained vital support

We have recently received two very valuable pieces of funding for the Close the Gap campaign: 65,000 over three years from the Methodist Church, and 22,500 over three years form the Jesuits. Could you help too? Make your own Pledge at www. church-poverty.org.uk/give, or call 0161 236 9321 and ask about making a donation.

We worked with journalist Helen Clifton to produce a powerful series of articles, exploring how spending cuts will have a devastating impact on communities which were already struggling. The articles were published by the Big Issue in the North. The first article, Cut and cut again, draws on our poverty premium research to highlight the impact of cuts in Goldthorpe, South Yorkshire. You can read the article, and see an audio slideshow which Helen created, at www. church-poverty. org.uk/news/ cutandcutagain. Or call 0161 236 9321 to request a copy.

in progress

1

When we have o

ur big

meeting and we hold those

in power to account for their

solu actions, its ab tely great

campaign! Our Thrive pr oject received an award for Rip-off TV ca the inspiring mpaign, whic h mobilised Ch on Poverty su urch Action pporters alon gside grassroo activists to ch ts Thrive allenge a high -cost lender. and Kath Cart Greg Brown er from Thrive (pictured) colle award at the cted the North East Vo luntary and Co Sector Awards mmunity on 26 May 20 11. You can see G reg and Kath reflecting on campaign an the d the award in more detail, in video at http:/ a special /youtu.be/I3JE uMzUmEU

most inspirin

spark news from Church Action on Poverty autumn 2011

the Salford Apprentice

Sarah Dumpleton, our Research and Information Officer, introduces some work weve been doing to help people in poverty make a difference in their communities.

ast year, our Community Pride Unit (CPU) developed the Salford Apprentice programme as part of the Take Part Pathfinder in Salford. The training programme was designed to build up the skills, knowledge and confidence of people who want to take a more active role in their community from volunteering to becoming a local councillor. When Community Pride led a series of focus groups in Salford, wed found that people faced barriers to joining local decision-making bodies and were often prevented from having a say regarding decisions that affected their area. We also found that people sitting on local committees were not very representative of the local community with women, young adults and people from ethnic minorities being particularly under-represented. The Apprentice is a 10-week course designed to equip and inspire people to get involved, and redress this balance. Each session is focused upon a particular topic such as Motivation, Participation and Power, Representation and Decision-Making. CPU facilitators use interactive and participatory methods to enable the participants to contribute to the sessions and share their own thoughts and experience with the group. Apprentices also learn about civil and civic opportunities, and reflect upon how they would like to put their skills into practice in Salford. Participants have the opportunity to meet existing Community Representatives, who come and talk about what their role involves. The course is also accredited by the University of Salford: two of the main sessions are led by the university, and Apprentices then go on to complete an additional 12-week university module from the Work Based Learning Framework: Evidencing Personal & Professional Development.

Due to the success of last years programme, we will be running The Apprentice again later this year. For more information, see the training section of our website www. communitypride.org.uk, or call us on 0161 236 9321 ext 3.

Salford Apprentice is
a tree that we plant

ations r future gener fo

in progress

15

The 14 Apprentices who took part in 2010 were a diverse group: some were students, some were refugees or people seeking asylum, others worked in a range of local jobs, others were retired or unemployed. We had a higher proportion of women to men and a higher proportion of people from BME communities; this was interesting as both of these demographics are currently underrepresented throughout the UK when it comes to civic activism. All of the Apprentices have gone on to take on new roles in their communities.

It is giving me the opportunity volved and knowledge to be in

in community development

It was amazing! I am so

glad that I took part

I appreciated the university

input a chance I never had before

The programme has

helped me to improve

ation and my communic presentation skills

spark news from Church Action on Poverty autumn 2011

seeds of justice
Rosie Venner of the Student Christian Movement offered this prayer for use by all those who have Pledged to Pray to Close the Gap.
Sow seeds of justice in our hearts, Lord and we will not let hope be snatched away from us like the bird snatches seed from the path Sow seeds of courage in our hearts, Lord and we will not let fear or apathy prevent our roots from growing deep and keeping us strong Sow seeds of persistence in our hearts, Lord and we will not let the powerful or cynical stand in our way like the weeds that smother new shoots Sow seeds of your kingdom in our hearts, Lord and we will share our hope and work together Sow seeds of your kingdom in our hearts, Lord and we will delight in the harvest that is enough for all Amen

The Student Christian Movement (www. movement.org. uk) is a partner in the Close the Gap campaign

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