Sheffield Poverty Update No.

19 August 2011
Church Action on Poverty is a national ecumenical Christian social justice charity, committed to tackling poverty in the UK. We work in partnership with churches and with people in poverty themselves to find solutions to poverty, locally, nationally and globally

Make your Pledge to Close the Gap between rich and poor. Give, Act and Pray with us to build a more equal society go to http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/ News on the Campaign: The Methodist Church and Christian Aid have now joined in supporting Church Action on Poverty to close the gap. (See a clip on youtube with thoughts from the Methodist Conference on YOUTUBE SEARCH INPUT closethegap methodist) A Just Church module on equality is to be produced for Churches to use. As an example of the growing gap-Financial Mail reports that the CEO of Nationwide has a current remuneration that is 26 times the average society workers wage but with a new pay deal this will become 32 times. The Government has recently cut the basic rate of crisis loans paid to the poorest by 20% and now considers that the basic amount needed to live on a day is 5.78 (for those 25 years or over). ACTION-Could you: Send this newsletter around any email groups that might be interested in receiving it Print off this newsletter and leave it in appropriate places or notice boards or pass on to friends
Just a thought. Within a short distance of an average town church in the UK (using national statistics) there are likely to be 10, 000 people that would include: 2,000 people on low income 333 unemployed people 160 people who are homeless or in temporary accommodation 833 carers 1,100 people with some kind of mental health problems 1,200 people living alone, 580 of whom would be of pensionable age (go http://www.fote.org.uk/news/2011.aspx?id=3448o friends of the elderly for a report on this issue). 910 people on some sort of benefit to

SHEFFIELD CHURCH ACTION ON POVERTY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING THURSDAY 5TH MAY 2011QUAKER MEETING HOUSE, ST JAMES STREET Canon Nick Jowett introduced the theme of the AGM :The impact of the cuts on poor and vulnerable people, welcomed the speakers and opened the meeting with a prayer. The first item on the agenda was a performance of the play, Kathys Dream, written by David Price, directed by Marion Haywood, and performed by other members of the committee and their friends a look, with a pantomime slant, at the life of a single mother affected by the cuts imposed as a result of politics and high finance. The performance was well received by those present. Community Legal Advice Services for South Yorkshire talk by Anne Hudson Anne Hudson, Co-ordinator of Sheffield Law Centre and chair of CLASSY (Community Legal Advice Services for South Yorkshire) began her talk by giving three examples of clients who had been helped by the Law Centre to achieve justice, and who would not have had the financial resources or the knowledge to achieve this in any other way. The Law Centre is part of a city-wide network (CLASSY) whose 29 members of the not-for profit advice centres helped nearly 50,000 people last year. This service is vital for the poorest and most vulnerable in the city and is being significantly put at risk by the actual and proposed cuts in funding. The centres have already lost 0.75 million in grant funding from the Council and plus further cuts in legal aid and trust funding. The current Council funding is only for the next 6 months, after which it is anticipated that the advice centres will be required to bid for grants under a commissioning basis (a much more problematic exercise for relatively small organisations than for large commercial firms). In addition, some crucial areas, including all debt, welfare benefits and immigration issues will no longer attract funding. The impact of these cuts will be that years of experience may be lost to organisations which can under-cut on costs but which do not have the close community links so valued by the poor and those lacking in confidence. Anne asked those present to lobby for the retention of the not-for-profit advice services and appealed for volunteers both to work in the centres and as management committee members. She also distributed a hand-out with further information and suggestions for helping. SCOOP Aid talk by Jean Smith Jean Smith, Co-ordinator of SCOOP Aid (Sheffield Committee of One Parents) said that she felt that the financial situation for voluntary advice agencies was worse even than in the Thatcher years and recession. As an example, the reduction of 11.7% in their grant this year (a lower percentage than some other agencies suffered) has meant that a welfare rights worker who advised 300 lone parents last year has had to be made redundant. Jean listed some of the complex number of benefits that are being reduced or withdrawn over the next 1-3 years and which will cause a significant drop in the incomes of the poorest section of the population, whether not working or working in low-paid jobs. Jean made the point that a return to work can be very beneficial and that SCOOP Aid has run programmes supporting 255 hard to employ single parents back into work. However, the requirement to seek work once the youngest child reaches 5 years, the withdrawal of affordable child care schemes and the changes in benefit and child support rules will all impact particularly harshly on single parents. Jean urged those present to make their opinion known to their MP and to also lobby via the Gingerbread website. She concluded by saying that SCOOP Aid had existed for 35 years but would now have to drastically reduce their services unless they were successful in a Lottery Fund bid

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Disability and the Cuts: the effect of public spending cuts on disabled people A public meeting organised by Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield and Sheffield Centre for Independent Living (SCIL). Speakers include Simon Duffy (Centre for Welfare Reform; Campaign for a Fair Society) and Andrew Crooks of SCIL Thursday 29th September, 7-9pm, Quakers Meeting House, St James Street S1. All welcome, disabled access Diocese of Hallam Justice and Peace Commission

CLOSE THE GAP between rich and poor

(with contributions from CAP and Christians against Poverty) Saturday 15th October at St Bernards School, Herringthorpe For further information and booking contact: Fr Shaun Smith on 0114 2343580 or email sacredheart479@btinternet.com

Our annual pilgrimage on Saturday 29 October is in the Manor and Castle area to hear about what some churches and projects are undertaking in their community We will set off for an exciting walk after a commissioning service at Victoria Methodist Church Stafford Road at 9.30am that includes visits to various church projects, a gentle ascent of Skye Edge, which is a fine viewpoint in Sheffield, a delightful farm shop and views of the historic Manor Lodge returning to our start point at 2.30pm. Please join us for an inspiring and enjoyable experience all welcome, more details from our secretary-contact details at the end of this newsletter .

SHEFFIELD CAP WILL BE ORGANISING A SERVICE AT SHEFFIELD CATHEDRAL ON THE AFTERNOON OF SUNDAY 29 January 2012 Our world is filled with barriers between people. Barriers that prevent us from understanding one another. By the stigma attached to being poor or homeless, by the stigma of mental illness by the growing gap between rich and poor. But what can we do? Rich Poor
Housed Homeless Rural Urban Migrant Settled Homeowner Tenant Employed Unemployed Private sector Public sector Employer Employee Bankers | The rest

Tuesday 31 January 2012 at St Wilfrids Centre @6.45pm-an evening to reflect on the barriers that divide us and what we can do to remove them.

Christians Against the Cuts At our AGM a motion was carried that-Church Action on Poverty in Sheffield expresses its deep concern at the impact which the current programme of Government spending cuts will have on poor and vulnerable people and resolves to set up a new group, Christians Against the Cuts reporting to our Committee to inform churches and to campaign on these issues. Update on the new group from Margaret Stone: Christians Against the Cuts have produced a leaflet explaining why we oppose these cuts, what their effects will be and what alternatives there are. Well over 1,000 leaflets have been distributed so far, and if you would like some for your place of worship or to give to your friends, please let me know. The Sheffield Telegraph has published a letter about the campaign and we have a banner that appeared for the first time on the Sheffield demonstration against the cuts on 30th June. We are also on Facebook. For more information or leaflets, to join the mailing list or to get involved, email margaret@stone103.plus.com or phone 0114 2746362. Stop gap night shelter Until now, StopGap has been run under the auspices of SAVE but the time has come to seek separate charitable status for it as an organisation in its own right, to raise its profile and to facilitate future fundraising, SAVE is organising a launch event to mark the occasion, to mark the event on Tuesday, 4 October at lunchtime in the city centre. Full details will be publicised in the SAVE newsletter in September and may also be obtained from Dianne Patterson (Dianne.save@ibrik.co.uk (A recent report indicated that homelessness in Sheffield had increased by 38% in 2010) Members! Supporters! As always we rely on you to advise us on where we should be directing our efforts and on helping us to do this. We are also totally reliant on church and individual members subscriptions for all the expenses involved in raising awareness of poverty in our area. Subscriptions for 2011-2012 are now due and we should particularly encourage churches as well as individual members to show their support by subscribing. Please ask your church to support us. Information about subscriptions (which range from 0 -25) can be requested from the Treasurer, Bernard Greenwood, on 0114 2872991 or CAP.treas@Waitrose.com. Please contact us if you wish to have more details about any of the items in this newsletter, or have suggestions about what we should be doing, or can offer any help. Enquiries about the Sheffield group to: Chair: Canon Nicholas P A Jowett (njowett@sapl.ecclesallmethodist.org) Secretary: Sarah Baker 0114 2309552 sarahbaker17@live.co.uk