Challenging Poverty
How can we challenge poverty within the UK?
‘Challenging Poverty’ is a campaign to tackle poverty in Britain and an initiative of the Church Urban Fund (CUF). 11.4 million people in Britain live in poverty including 3.4 million children (Source: DWP, 2006.) Should this be happening in the world’s fifth richest nation? The ‘Challenging Poverty’ campaign will enable CUF to continue its pioneering work with the top 10 per cent of the poorest communities in England. CUF is one of the few national organisations that invest in grass-roots projects which work to eradicate the negative effects of poverty, but find it hard to get funding to continue or start projects that transform people’s lives. (CUF has provided funding to over 4,000 projects across the country). Challenging Poverty will make a significant difference as it focuses solely on helping people living in this country and will result in sustainable projects being launched in the poorest local areas that will have a long-lasting impact on the community.
How can we challenge poverty within the UK?
June 2008 the Diocesan Synod called upon PCC’s to:
1. Challenging Poverty in your Community
Making a Difference Events In 2009 we held a number of “Challenging Poverty: Making a Difference” events to explore poverty and help provide parishes with information on how local projects and churches are working to challenge poverty in their own community. The events were a chance to excite, challenge and encourage church mission and action through an inspiring programme of drama, stories, reflection and worship. It was an opportunity to communicate that poverty is on our doorstep, there are local organisations who work to help those less fortunate and to convey the message that poverty is not just about money and affects all areas, both urban and rural. More info A video from the Stockport event which shows some small clips of the different things that took place during the evening.
2. Celebration and Thanksgiving for the Church Urban fund and projects in our diocese
June 2008 was the first Church Urban Fund Sunday and Bishop Keith called for a day of prayer for all those caught up in poverty. A special anniversary lunch brought churches and organisations funded by CUF between 1988 – 2008 together for the first time. June 2009 saw CUF ‘Change my World’ exhibition held at Chester Cathedral. The exhibition was dedicated by Bishop Keith and the celebration afterwards marked the contribution of the Church Urban Fund to our diocese and the work of the many projects supported by them. The celebration highlighted the strong partnership between the diocese, Church Urban Fund and the local church. In response to ‘popular demand’ we will continue to bring CUF supported church projects together each June to network. More info
3. Raising funds for the Church Urban Fund
Many churches returned pledge cards to Bishop Keith to demonstrate their commitment to ‘pray, act and give’. Some churches have given a donation to CUF from their annual giving whilst others have raised funds through special events, for example a musical evening, a strawberry tea and a Lenten appeal. You may be interested to know that:
- 2007 - CUF received 17 gifts totalling £5,000 from churches in our diocese
- 2008 - CUF received 43 gifts totalling £15,477 from churches in our diocese
- 2009 - CUF received 13 gifts so far this year
256 individuals have given a gift to the Church Urban Fund since October 2008 amounting to £7,641. We thank parishes and individuals for their generous support and hope that they will continue to give over and beyond the three years so that CUF can continue its work of supporting the poorest communities. Learn more about CUF Go to Church Urban Fund website
Resources
If you didn’t have chance to take part in one of the events we have some resources you can use in your parish. For further information on projects in your neighbourhood or useful resources then visit our Challenging Poverty Resource page