Church Action on Poverty is a UK-based national

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals ...

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * C ...

, committed to tackling

poverty in the United Kingdom Poverty in the United Kingdom refers to the portion of the population of the United Kingdom that are considered to be in poverty under some measures of poverty. Data based on incomes published in 2016 by the Department for Work and Pensions ( ...

. Church Action on Poverty works in partnership with churches and with people in poverty themselves to find solutions to poverty, locally, nationally and globally.

History

Church Action on Poverty was formed in 1982, has its main offices in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

and is charity number 1079986. The first director of CAP was the MP John Battle, the second Director was former government minister

Paul Goggins Paul Gerard Goggins (16 June 1953 – 7 January 2014) was a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wythenshawe and Sale East from 1997 until his death in January 2014. He was also previously a Minister of Stat ...

. The current director is Niall Cooper.

Philosophy

Church Action on Poverty emphasises the need for people in poverty to have a voice in decisions which affect them, and focuses on participation and empowerment. An example of this approach is their 'poverty hearing' model.

Campaigns

Church Action on Poverty currently runs campaigns which are connected by the theme 'Close the Gap', aiming to tackle economic inequality and close the gap between rich and poor. The organisation has successfully campaigned for all the UK's major Christian denominations to support the Living Wage. Previously, Church Action on Poverty ran the Living Ghosts campaign highlighting the destitution of

asylum seekers An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country and applies for asylum (i.e., international protection) in that other country. An asylum seeker is an immigrant who has been forcibly displaced and ...

in the UK. It also helped to set up and run the

Debt on our Doorstep Debt on our Doorstep is a UK-based campaign against extortionate credit lending and for fair financial services. The campaign, founded in 1999, comprises not-for-profit and non-governmental organisations including Oxfam and the National Housing F ...

campaign against loan sharks and extortionate lending practices such as

payday loans A payday loan (also called a payday advance, salary loan, payroll loan, small dollar loan, short term, or cash advance loan) is a short-term unsecured loan, often characterized by high interest rates. The term "payday" in payday loan refers to ...

. Church Action on Poverty has pioneered the use of

international development International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic or human development on an international scale. It is the basis for international classificatio ...

approaches to tackle UK poverty. Examples include

participatory budgeting Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. Participatory budgeting allows ...

(which was taken up by the Labour government in 2007), sustainable livelihoods analysis, and

Freirean Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work ''Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' is generally considered one of the foundat ...

popular education in the form of 'Schools of Participation'.

People's Budget

The People's Budget is a campaign for more

in UK led by the Church Action on Poverty who planned campaign workshops across the UK in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

St. Helens, Merseyside St Helens () is a town in Merseyside, England, with a population of 102,629. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, which had a population of 176,843 at the 2001 Census. St Helens is in the south-west of the ...

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

Tameside The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

and

Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt. The population of Tyneside as publishe ...

. The Church Action on Poverty feels that billions of pounds of money is being used by public bodies without any involvement of local people. 'The People's Budget' campaign is about helping British citizens understand how to influence their local council, health organisation, police force or housing provider. The campaign works with groups and individual to promote: #

Participatory budgeting Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. Participatory budgeting allows ...

in their local area and wider # Participatory budgeting as the standard model for certain budgets # Having a one percent minimum of

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, inf ...

budgets decided using participatory budgeting

References

External resources

Church Action on Poverty website
Christian charities based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Manchester Charities based in Manchester Organizations established in 1982 1982 establishments in the United Kingdom {{GreaterManchester-stub