Category

• Interesting Local Practice

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Poverty impact

• Mitigation
• Awareness

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Poverty driver

• Provide benefit in-kind (material)
• Provide benefit in-kind (experience)
• Increase income from benefits
• Increase employment income

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Keywords

• Partnership Working
• Empowerment
• Rural Areas
• Food
• Energy

Aim

• Proactively sought poverty-related challenges and developed short- and long-term solutions.
• Provided quick, emergency assistance in situations of immediate crisis.
• Supported those in poverty through referrals to the agencies best suited to help them.
• As partners, they made best use of the skills and existing resources in member organisations and deployed them where needed.
• Worked with local and remote funders to make best use of available grant money.
• Supported the statutory agencies in their work locally.
• Held politicians and organisations accountable where appropriate.

Summary

Caithness Poverty Action Group (CPAG) was an affiliation of statutory, voluntary and Third sector organisations that worked to identify and tackle all aspects of poverty, including its root causes and consequences. CPAG directed individuals to available support services, promoted the work of its members, and encouraged mutual awareness and engagement between members. The project facilitated access to food for those in need by promoting foodbanks, food/voucher provision schemes, and supporting food waste prevention (i.e., redistributing food supplied by supermarkets and manufacturers). CPAG provided energy saving advice while collaborating with energy saving schemes and also focused on fostering well-being for members of the community through various initiatives.

What difference does it make?

The project itself did not alleviate poverty in Caithness. In fact, poverty has grown in scale since the beginning of the project. However, CPAG was successful in helping equip their member organisations to be able to deal with poverty related issues, raising awareness of the poverty in the locality, and helping individuals through employment initiatives, training, and/or direct intervention such as supplying food vouchers or providing energy assistance. This demonstrates provision of in-kind benefits, through both assets and experiences. CPAG was successful in making a difference on a smaller scale and helping individuals and organisations mitigate poverty.

Key take-aways

• There is more poverty than meets the eye. It can exist where you wouldn’t expect to find it.
• You cannot depend on statutory organisations to deliver long-term support for charitable activities.
• Trust your instincts. If it seems like a good poverty relief measure, then it probably is
• Apply for funding with a robust long-term strategy

 

Organisations

Primary organisation: Caithness Voluntary Group.

Location

Caithness, including Thurso, Wick and surrounding rural areas.

Contact