Church Action on Poverty North East: Annual Report 2011

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CHURCH ACTION ON POVERTYNORTH EAST

ANNUAL REPORTFEBRUARY 2010

-JULY 2011


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Church Action on Poverty North East Annual Report

February 2010 July 2011

This period has been a combination of: continuing work arising from our major Images for Change

project; engaging in new work related to national Church Action on Poverty priorities like MP ac-

countability groups and the Close the Gap campaign; and participating in regular events like PovertyAction Sunday and Church Action on Poverty Local Groups meetings. As ever the work of the group

draws its validity from individual members involvement with disadvantaged communities in our area.

This report is a collaborative endeavour with different members reporting on the various aspects of

our work.

Work arising from our Images for Change Project

Engage for Change

The Images For Change (East End) group over a year and a half ago initiated their latest initiative

called Engage for Change. This was to allow the various groups to explore their relationships at alllevels-family, friends, neighbours, etc- and to see how they went well. But also to be aware of how

they go wrong and how conflict arises.

The whole project was slow to get moving, but gathered some momentum and we were able to gather

a number of people at a final party in Monkchester Community Centre to celebrate all that had been

and was being done.

Alongside the work in various groups we offered training in conflict resolution. This was provided by

the Newcastle Conflict Resolution Network and was led by Rosemary Harthill. The training involved

a residential weekend with facilitators. Again this was slow to start, but after the initial weekend the

take-up grew and to date we have had seven residentials at level one and level two. Some of those in-

volved are also being trained to be facilitators! There is a further weekend planned for September.

Surprisingly this phase of the project has really developed well in the community and continues togrow. Thanks go to Rosemary and Peter Kendrick who have worked hard with us over the last couple

of years.

Bill Rooke

Barriers to EmploymentThose involved in the Images for Change project always had

the aspiration to continue with a sharper focus on issues

affecting young people. Barriers to employment was a key

issue in all the areas involved, where many families had been

without paid employment for 3 generations and the recessionis now making it even harder to overcome barriers.

This project aimed to give a voice to the young people

labelled as hard to reach by the institutions, by using young

unemployed people(16-30yrs) as the researchers who would

find out from their peers what were the main obstacles to

accessing paid employment

Justice Prince CIC were appointed by CAPNE as consultants to facilitate the project,

Work took place with key projects in Walker, Meadow Well, Pendower and South Tyneside

Several small group sessions took place with young people from the projects, helping them to share

their experiences, identify their abilities and develop their skills so that they could go out and engage

other young people in the process. Through this process a questionnaire was developed and a small

team of researchers was formed in each area

Activists from South Tyneside & Benwell at NewcastleLord Mayors Garden Party


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11 young people across the 4 areas (Meadow Well, South Tyneside, Walker & Pendower)interviewed

76 young people with the following key findings:

Young people felt very strongly that some Jobcentre plus staff were often disre-

spectful and unhelpful

Working yet worse off - benefit lost before wages paid

Finding a job when you dont have any experience

Being treated like a number and learning how to behave!

Powerless to respond dont ask questionsRecommendations

To arrange an event that brings the research team from each of the four target areas together

to reflect and share their experiences with one another.

Peer mentoring young people supporting other young people within JCP and other agen-

cies

Develop community leadership / organiser training programme for the peer mentors

Deliver a regional conference to influence key stake-

holders within the region

The project group have presented their findings, in a work-

shop format, at a recent Regional NE Empowerment Partner-ship event in the Centre for Life Newcastle. The evaluation of

this event scored the presentation at a high level. A further

roundtable event

[April 2011] was facilitated by the group in response to a re-

quest from the University of Northumbria. - Social Policy

and Social Welfare Module for over 80 Social Work Stu-

dents. Again, this was well received and commended by the University

Stage 2

The proposed strategy and action plan for stage 2 is focused on influencing and informing those whooffer employment advice and guidance Job Centre advisers, social work personnel, and other em-

ployment guidance services.

Building on its peer research experience in the employment field the project would aim to develop the

capacity and capability to both undertake further research and play a sharper focused advocacy roles

in health, education, housing and consumer research services.

Lack of funding is currently delaying further progress with the project - A full project report includ-

ing proposed future developments is available on request

Margaret Reynolds


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New work related to national Church Action on Poverty priorities

MP Accountability Network

Wansbeck Constituency MP Ian Lavery(Lab)

In April, last year Bedlingtonshire Churches Together agreed to join up to Church Actionon Povertys MP Accountability network Participating groups meet regularly with their

MPs to hold them to account about policy development and what they are doing to close

the gap between the rich and poor in our country. After a couple of initial meetings of

those interested, on October 1st we had our first meeting with the Ian Lavery, the newly

elected MP for the Wansbeck constituency. At the first meeting we used the briefings pre-

pared by CAP on the need for a fairness test, the Robin Hood tax and extortionate lending.

In March we had our second meeting. At this we discussed the affects of the Government spending re-

view especially on young people and the affects of the universal credit, especially on those with disabili-

ties. We also discussed attempts to control interest rates and Stella Creasys attempts to get parliament to

legislate on this area. Mr Lavery was very attentive to our concerns. The combination of the use of brief-ings and local stories powerfully came together in this discussion. At this meeting we also had Helen

McNally, who was at the time a CAP intern co-ordinating the MP Accountability Network. She has

written about this meeting in last edition of Sparks.

At this meeting Ian Lavery expressed an interest to meet representatives of the Churches Together. This

happened on July 1. Again, this was a useful discussion which looked at the affects of cuts, the future of

ALCAN, who are one of the biggest local employers in the area, and how Churches Together with other

organisations and institutions could encourage young people to take more interest in what is happening

in society.

In the three meetings we have had with our MP in the past year I would see the following benefits:

Our MP is aware that local churches are concerned with how national policies are affecting local people

and want to engage with him about relevant issues.

We have gained his trust and confidence so if there was an issue of concern he would be readily atten-

tive

The conversations are very mutual. Ian Lavery has challenged us to see how we could make our

churches more open to young people. As well as expressing our concerns, he has highlighted to us how

government policies are affecting the elderly, the young, the disabled and people with learning difficul-

ties

Chris Hughes

Hexham Constituency - MP. Guy Opperman (Con)A group which includes members from the Catholic Church, the Community Church, the

East Hexham Regeneration project and Disability group(ADAPT) met with Guy Opper-

man on March 11th Using housing need in Tynedale as a focus, the group covered the

following issues: housing benefit, disability, fuel poverty, high cost credit and access to

information and advice in particular the need to protect Tynedale CAB. The meeting

was positive and group members supplied additional information as requested but there

has been no further response from the MPs office in relation to issues raised. A second

meeting scheduled for June had to be postponed to the autumn due to the MPs illness

Pat Devlin


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Church Outreach to Close the GapCAPNE identified Church Outreachas its priority for 2011 which linked well with the national launch

of the Close the Gap campaign in January. Liam Purcell, from the Manchester Office helped us to re-

vamp our exhibition boards with a Close the Gap focus and new fliers, giving information about

Church Action on Poverty and CAPNE, were inserted into the Close the Gap leaflets.

We have offered churches the exhibition boards and a speaker from CAPNE either for Sunday ser-vices or an interested group. Our calendar of bookings is as follows so far:

May Shepherds Dene Anglican retreat centre, Tynedale

June East Newcastle RC Deanery & Shepherds Dene

July Shepherds Dene

Sept CAPNE AGM Pendower, C of E diocesan meeting All Saints Newcastle,

St Aidans RC parish Benton

Oct J&P AGM Gosforth, St Giles, St Marys, St Cuthberts C of E parishes Durham

Nov. St Marys RC parish Hexham

Jan South Tyneside Churches Together

Spirit Level Series at Shepherds DeneAs part of our outreach to churches we engaged in a partnership with Shep-

herds Dene, the Anglican retreat centre, now managed by George Hepburn,

former CEO of the Community Foundation, to offer this series. The fact that

Richard Wilkinson had recently spoken at the Hexham Debates about the find-

ings contained in his book the Spirit Level gave us a topical introduction to the

Close the Gap campaign.

Each of the 3 sessions focussed on a section of the book:

In the first session Material Success Social Failure we presented the basic premise of the SpiritLevel

How, in developed countries, almost everything from life expectancy to mental illness, violence toilliteracy, is affected not by how wealthy a society is, but how equal it is

That societies with a bigger gap between the rich and poor are bad for everyone in them in-

cluding the well offHaving demonstrated that the gap in Britain is at its largest for 40years, we went on to address the

various elements of the Close the Gap campaign using local examples to illustrate it

In the second session The Cost of Inequality we used case studies from Cedarwood Trust, Meadow

Well on North Tyneside to explore the human cost of living in a very unequal society, where the inci-

dence of premature death, teenage pregnancy, obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and imprison-ment are all higher. We also explored how the kind of society which measures success by how high

you are on the inequality scale, destroys trust and the quality of human relationships, which flourish in

a more cooperative environment.

In the third session Towards a Better Society we introduced a panel, chaired by

Archdeacon Geoff Miller who helped us explore the different elements which could contribute to a

better society as follows:

Lya Vollering, Community Member at Minsteracres, - Equality & Sustainability

Jack Harrison Deputy CEO of Eaga Ltd - Corporate Power & Alternatives

Nigel Todd, Local Councillor & Cooperative Activist - Cooperatives & Political Will

Greg Brown, Church Action on Poverty worker - Community Organising


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The sessions attracted up to 36 people from very varied back-

grounds: Tyneside social activists, Tynedale environmentalists,

people from Church and social work backgrounds and there was a

very lively debate at the end of each session which continued over

tea. At the final session there were very specific suggested actions

eg signing the cooperatives petition, making Close the Gap pledges,

affiliating to the Equality Trust. But, there will also be a continued

partnership with Shepherds Dene

In September there will be a roundtable discussion with Richard Wilkinson involving members of the

local business community and members of CAPNE.

Next year it is hope there will be further mini series during Lent and in July.

Shepherds Dene have also offered CAPNE free time for their own refelection. In all it has been a

very enriching experience and hopefully a small step towards closing the gap

Pat Devlin

Regular Events & Activities

Poverty Action Sunday Event,6th

February, 2011

Who Counts?

This was planned to be as participatory as possible, and to focus on powerlessness, a significant de-

scription, even definition, of poverty. It was held at the premises of

the Cedarwood Trust, a pastoral care organisation which servesMeadow Well estate in North Shields. As the three dozen or so peo-

ple who attended arrived, each was given an identity, written on a

card: immigrant, working man or woman, people in particular jobs,

mother, pensioner and so on, with details of the characters back-

ground and way of life.

Then, playing their new role in life, each person tried to get selcted

for one of 3 projects: a Church Action on Poverty campaign, work in a care home, or a place on a

cruise holiday. Many felt that they had been wrongly allocated, or were disappointed at the choices

that others had made concerning their futures. It was salutary for most of those present to experience,

even if only very superficially, something of the feelings of having no power over their own lives,

feelings which many people endure every day of their lives.

John Battle then addressed the meeting. John was Church Action on Povertys first national co-

ordinator, in the mid-eighties, and then became Member of Parliament for Leeds West, serving as that

until he retired in 2010. He spoke powerfully of his experiences of constituents problems, and of the

ways in which people are often made to feel powerless, and excluded from the process of making de-

cisions about their own lives.

An act of worship involved everyone present, and refreshments co-ordinated by a neighbour of

Cedarwoods were enjoyed by all. As well as being able to welcome many people well-known to

CAPNE, it was pleasing that members of three local churches congregations, new to the organisation,

also attended particularly impressive as the Metro was not operating and the weather was awful.

David Peel


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Living Ghosts & Support for Asylum Seekers

Some CAP members continue to support Hexham & Newcastle

Diocesan Justice & Peace Asylum Project which has for the last

ten years supported Asylum Seekers at 5 drop in Centres in the

Diocese. The main effort takes place at St Josephs Benwell where

a payment of 5 weekly and a bag of groceries are provided for

failed Asylum Seekers. Currently 93 Diocesan parishes and

schools are involved in collecting and delivering food. Although

donations through appeals and standing orders have for the past

4 years allowed weekly payments of 5 to be made to upwards of

120 failed Asylum Seekers; payments unfortunately have had to temporarily cease awaiting further

donations. Feeding in to the CAPNE meeting on a regular basis has helped to make the links with the

Living Ghosts campaign

Pat MacDonald

CAPNE meetings and national linksCAPNE continues to hold its regular meetings on the last Friday of the month at 2pm in

St Lawrences church hall, Byker. We are very grateful to St. Lawrences for giving us such easy and

regular access to the hall and allowing us to store our resources there.

Liam Purcell from the Manchester office attends our meetings on a 3monthly basis which together

with frequent emails ensures good communication about national and local developments.

Members of CAPNE have also attended the two meetings which have brought together Church Ac-

tion on Poverty local groups to share information and experiences and it is hoped this will become a

regular feature. There are currently local groups in Liverpool, Sheffield, Barnsley, Leeds, Halifax

and Northern Ireland, but CAPNE currently holds the record as the longest standing local ChurchAction on Poverty group.

Plans for the future

Peoples Budget travelling workshop Saturday Oct. 22nd !0-4pmThis will offer, particularly but not exclusively, communities involved in the Images for Change

project the opportunity to explore how they can have a greater say in how money is spent in their

communities

Close the Gap Advocates WorkshopSunday November 6th 3.30pm - 5.30pmThis will offer training and resources to people willing to promote the campaign to their networks

Barriers to EmploymentThe steering group will find ways for the young people to present the findings of their research to a

wider range of institutions eg Job Centre plus and will explore possible ways of carrying the project

into a second phase

Documents

Church Action on Poverty North East: Annual Report 2011