Category

• Fully Validated Effective Local Practice

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Poverty impact

• Prevention
• Mitigation
• Reduction
• Awareness

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Poverty driver

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

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Keywords

• Community Action
• Community Engagement
• Food and Drink
• Empowerment
• Stigma

Aim

• To provide safe, welcoming spaces for residents who may be at risk of/are experiencing poverty, hardship or social isolation in Clackmannanshire.
• To provide practical support to meet immediate community and individual needs including emergency food, school uniforms, and help with digital access and online applications.
• To reduce the impact of poverty by working with local partners to connect people to services and provide targeted advocacy and support.

Summary

The Gate is a community-based anti-poverty project that delivers a range of interconnected services designed to support vulnerable people across Clackmannanshire. Rather than operating as separate projects, services such as the foodbank, soup pots, school uniform hub, community café, larders and digital inclusion support form part of a wider holistic approach to tackling poverty, social isolation and inequality within the community.

What difference does it make?

The Gate has successfully created a safe, welcoming environment by securing staff who can properly support vulnerable people in Clackmannanshire. This makes a significant difference by transforming how service users view the project, establishing it as an effective, friendly support system that they confidently recommend to others in the community. Furthermore, the project addresses a wider range of problems by equipping individuals with day-to-day life skills, including volunteering opportunities, food preparation, and digital skills.
The community is also given a voice in local decisions through the project's continuous dialogue and direct advocacy with local government, policymakers, and the Scottish Welfare Fund.
A major, often unrecognised difference the project makes is raising awareness of local community needs to people in positions of power who can effect real and informed change. Finally, it provides essential practical relief through its provision of food security, school uniforms, and addressing digital poverty by aiding service users with online applications.

Key take-aways

• Manage expectations.
• Realising you cannot do everything. Listen to needs and be realistic about how you can respond to those, not thinking you can help everyone.

 

Organisations

• The Gate Charity. • Local Citizens Advice. • Women’s Aid. • NHS Forth Valley.

Location

Clackmannanshire.

Contact