Challenge Poverty Week
Now that Challenge Poverty Week is over, the Poverty Alliance encourages us to take time for reflection. To reflect on how serious the poverty crisis in Scotland is, what you can do to help others and what options are out there to help yourself. If anyone needed convincing further that this is a severe issue in Scotland, right now there are over 1.1 million people currently living in poverty, that’s 21% of our population, 1 in 5 people. Like the projects described below, there will likely be initiatives in your local community looking to battle the effects of poverty.
Housing
Day 1 of Challenge Poverty Week focused on Housing poverty. According to a survey conducted by Shelter Scotland, 21% of children in Scotland live in what’s considered ‘absolute poverty’. This means that parents cannot meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter for an extended period.
Those living in poverty are at risk of developing mental health problems as their inability to pay bills can lead to sleep deprivation, anxiety, stress and depression. Berwickshire Housing Association and mental health charity, Penumbra, worked together to establish the BeWell Project.
Berwickshire Housing Association witnessed an increase in tenancy sustainment issues linked to poor mental health which led to negative effects on their wellbeing and the viability of their tenancy due to disengagement and substantial rent arrears.
The BeWell initiative was introduced for tenants needing mental health and wellbeing support by giving them access to experts from Penumbra, a leading mental health charity. The BeWell project aims to promote independent living by addressing key factors that risk tenancy sustainment, offering in-demand emotional and practical support, reducing tenancy breakdown and subsequent rent arrears, growing relationships with BHA staff, and delivering services within tenants' homes or where they feel most comfortable. This project is funded by the Berwickshire Housing Association and the SPA’s Community Benefit Fund.
The SPA Community Benefit Fund, in partnership with Lintel Trust, has supported the Berwickshire Housing Association with the BeWell initiative since 2021. BeWell was recently awarded further funding for 2024-25 taking the total grant funding awarded to £40,000. The SPA fund recognises projects that address critical issues within Scottish communities and provides them with the financial backing to kick-start community groups and initiatives and maintain their sustainability and long-term future.
Transport
The second day of Challenge Poverty Week brought the spotlight towards Transport Poverty.
According to Public Health Scotland;
‘A lack of transport options that are available, reliable, affordable, accessible and safe, referred to as transport poverty, creates serious health and social implications by blocking people’s ability to meet their daily needs and provide a good quality of life.’
‘In Scotland, while most people can access a food outlet by public transport within 20 minutes, 12% cannot.’
On this day we shone a light on 1st Step Development Ventures who have two established bike repair shops in Falkirk and Linlithgow. The workshops are designed to produce several positive outcomes that have a positive impact on their local communities.
Firstly they repair bikes helping people gain access to transport which can help them meet their daily needs, they also donate bikes to people in desperate need of a mode of transport.
Secondly, they offer a training course that helps volunteers working in the bike shop to re-develop latent skills they had lost due to a deterioration of their mental health or addiction. Finally, the charity sells refurbished bikes at special events across West Lothian and Falkirk which raises funds that feed into other ventures like their food pantries in Falkirk and Linlithgow or their community café in Linlithgow.
Low-Income Poverty
Day 3 of Challenge Poverty Week, brought focus to those living in poverty due to low incomes, according to the website Poverty and Inequality A household is considered to be in poverty if its income is less than 60% of the average income for that household type.
(Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
‘For those most likely to rely on social security, such as single-parent households or households where someone is disabled, this acts to lock them in poverty. And for those out of work, it leaves them with miserable incomes, with the basic rate of Universal Credit (UC) leaving single adults with an income that is 64% below the poverty line. For those under 25, it is even lower at around 75%.’
Just over 10% of workers in Scotland are locked in persistent low pay i.e. they are paid below the real Living Wage – 72% of them are women.
The Community Benefit Fund has supported many projects that aim to boost employability skills in communities. A great example of this is the Routes into Construction programme that our committee partner, Perth and Kinross Council, supported this year. The project aims to help young people aged between 16 and 24 to gain vital work experience in construction trades and the training that goes along with this work including work towards the CSCS card. This also came with a guaranteed interview with Perth UHI for a related course. The course has been running since 2018 and has gotten many young people into full-time employment. This year the course is being expanded to help individuals build confidence and set achievable goals.
Food Poverty
Day 4 of Challenge Poverty Week, was themed around food poverty, a serious problem facing Scotland, according to the Scottish Government:
‘The 2021 Scottish Health Survey showed that 9% of adults experienced food insecurity in the preceding 12 months, defined as worrying about running out of food due to lack of money or other resources.’
The Trussell Trust found that: ‘Between April 2023 and March 2024, the number of people that used a food bank for the first time was 655,000.’
This year, East Ayrshire Council and the Lintel Trust have supported the Community Larder and Food Education project through the Community Benefit Fund. The project consists of 17 community food larders in the East Ayrshire area. On top of getting food to people in need, the larders also provide financial advice and life coaching, this could be vital for young families and the elderly.
Volunteering against poverty
On the last day of Challenge Poverty Week, The Poverty Alliance encouraged us to shine a light on the Communities and Volunteers who give up their time to help people challenge poverty.
‘In Scotland, there are over 45,000 voluntary organisations and 48% of the nation's population has volunteered which is around 2.17 million in total.’
‘Currently, there are 210 food banks in Scotland, 120 of which are part of the Trussell Trust network and 90 that are independent.‘
The work put in by volunteers up and down the country provides vital support to those living in poverty. The efforts of a single volunteer can benefit many people. A great example of this is the projects that our Community Benefit Fund supports. Looking at the projects that have been supported this year, over 200 volunteers support the projects to benefit over 8000 people directly.
Conclusion
To conclude, poverty is a crisis that is affecting people from a variety of different angles. However, as we can see in the examples above there are support structures in place in the community that could offer help, although the efforts of charities, volunteer groups and volunteers can only go far. Challenge Poverty Week’s purpose was to raise awareness, to ensure that decision-makers take the severity of a truly impoverished Scotland seriously, to shine a light on the work people were doing to challenge poverty and to encourage people to volunteer and offer their time or surplus resources to help others in their community.
