Challenge Poverty Week is an annual, national campaign, co-ordinated by the Poverty Alliance to raise awareness of the issues surrounding poverty.
Dumfries and Galloway Council constantly strives to alleviate the effects of Poverty on people in our region. As a Council we have made protecting the most vulnerable a priority, and that’s why we develop our ground breaking anti-poverty strategy in 2015.
Challenge Poverty week, and the Tackling Poverty Conference which started the week, aim to highlight the provision in our region from not only our Council, but also from our partner and other Third Sector organisations.
The Conference had three key aims:
• Widen awareness of the causes of poverty and how it impacts individuals and families;
• To get the right people/ organisations together to positively deal with poverty, and;
• To provide inspirational examples of how, with the correct innovation and commitment, people in poverty can have their lives changed for the better
Speakers included: Jim McCormick, Associate Director for Scotland, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, who spoke about Inspiring Social Change to Solve Poverty in the UK; Tim Pogson, Service Coordinator with Scotland’s Housing Network who spoke about Challenging Homelessness; and Gordon Henry, Community innovation Coordinator, Loreburn Housing Trust who spoke about ‘From Poverty to Helping Those in Poverty’, sharing some of his own experiences.
Various workshops were held on the day in order to share experience and examples of good practice. These included topics such as Employability and Inclusive Growth, Tackling Fuel Poverty, Poverty and Young People and the Homelessness Improvement Programme.
Anti-Poverty provision falls primarily under the remit of the Council’s Communities Committee. Vice Chair, John Martin said: “Through the speakers and workshops at this Conference proves how vital our Council’s Anti-Poverty Strategy is: poverty is increasingly covering a wider spectrum of people and through conversations today I realise that no-one is truly safe from the effects of poverty.”
Chair of Communities Committee, Andy Fergusson commented: “All of our Council’s priorities tie into alleviating Poverty one way or another: Protecting our most vulnerable people; Providing the best start in life for all our Children; Being an inclusive Council; and Building the Local Economy.
This is not something we can solve overnight: however, at our Tackling Poverty Conference we managed to get together all the best people for the job, under one roof, at the same time. Through our workshops and shared best practice we can now work alongside and in partnership with Third Sector Organisations and associates to target provision and focus funding where it is needed most, making life a little easier for those experiencing deprivation in all its forms.”
Elected Members are continuing to visit organisations and events throughout our region this week to see for themselves the excellent work being carried out to help alleviate poverty and its effects on our local people. For more information please click HERE.
