By Guest
Liam Purcell works for Church Action on Poverty, whose annual Poverty and Homeless Action week starts on Saturday.
It’s interesting that the Community Links blog is focusing on poverty in the media this week. Right now, we at Church Action on Poverty are in the middle of preparing for our biggest annual effort to raise the public profile of poverty issues. Each year, we work together with our partners Housing Justice and Scottish Churches Housing Action to run Poverty & Homelessness Action Week.
During Action Week, which runs from 30 January to 7 February, we mobilise churches and groups across the UK to run events in their community. It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to make ordinary people more aware of the existence of poverty in their communities, and to generate support for initiatives working to make a difference.
Mobilising grassroots supporters like this is a really effective way for us to get more people to hear the authentic stories of people in poverty. It lets us circumvent the mainstream media completely, and get ordinary people in churches to hear the stories of those in poverty directly. Feedback from previous years shows that this experience has opened many people’s eyes to the reality of UK poverty, and inspired them to get involved in making a difference.
Of course, running an awareness-raising week like this is also a great way of getting poverty issues featured in the media. Last year, we produced a play called Voices from the Edge, which presented the stories of people in poverty and homelessness in their own words. Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral) appeared in a performance, which led to us having the opportunity for one of our subjects to recount his own experiences of homelessness in The Times.
This year is a bit different. We’re using the week to ask some bigger questions about the root causes of poverty. We want to challenge the dominant ideology – which is reinforced powerfully by the media – that focuses on consumption, economic growth and selfishness. Our supporters are getting involved in projects that tackle poverty by building stronger, more sustainable communities. We’re promoting initiatives like credit unions, cooperatives, allotments, furniture reuse, LETS schemes, and many more. It’s already attracted a lot of attention in local and national media.
If you’d like to use Poverty & Homelessness Action Week to raise awareness of poverty in your own area, check out the website – it’s full of free resources. I’d particularly recommend the 12 Baskets booklet, which lists lots of exciting projects and ideas.
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