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Open Letter to Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg
- 20 November 2008
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Posted By:
Tim J Bissett
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Church Urban Fund is a member of the
Get Fair national coalition campaign calling for an end to poverty in the UK.
I have signed an open letter to the three main party leaders urging the adoption of a recovery plan on the scale and ambition of that
proposed by US president elect Barack Obama.
The letter is signed by 25 of the UK’s leading charities - see Get Fair
The letter has been sent to all three parties ahead of the chancellor’s pre-budget speech on Monday.
You can download the letter here.
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Research: 'Rich Kid - Poor Kid' TV documentary explores impact of inequality
- 13 November 2008
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Posted By:
Tim J Bissett
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Check this out on the CUFX News site - thanks Andy!
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What is needed to end child poverty in 2020?
- 10 November 2008
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Posted By:
Tim J Bissett
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New report from JRF: See here
How realistic is the government's pledge
to end child poverty by 2020? The strategy is hugely ambitious and
progress has stalled. This Round-up draws on the findings of seven
reports about how to take forward different aspects of a child poverty
strategy; examines the impact of current policy; and suggests what is
needed to ensure the target is met.
There's still a lot to be done.
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MC Yogi: Obama '08 - Vote for Hope
- 09 November 2008
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Posted By:
Tim J Bissett
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Now Obama has won the election I feel I can post this. Do you think he can live up to the promise. I pray he can.
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Jim Wallis' video message to President-elect Obama
- 05 November 2008
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Posted By:
Tim J Bissett
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I may not be in America but I was thrilled to hear Jim Wallis today pledging support to Barack Obama.
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Estimating the costs of child poverty
- 24 October 2008
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Posted By:
Tim J Bissett
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A new report from the Joseph Roundtree Foundation estimates the cost of child poverty. Key points include:
- Child poverty’s consequences are wide-ranging and long-lasting. Children
from low-income families are less likely to do well in school, and more likely
to suffer ill-health and to face pressures in their lives that help to explain an
association with anti-social behaviours and criminality.
- These consequences cost society: in the money that government spends in
trying to counter the effects of child poverty, and in the economic costs of
children failing to reach their potential.
- These costs cannot be calculated precisely, but the following are cautious
estimates:
- Public spending to deal with the fallout of child poverty is about
£12 billion a year, about 60 per cent of which goes on personal social
services, school education and police and criminal justice.
- The annual cost of below-average employment rates and earnings
levels among adults who grew up in poverty is about £13 billion, of
which £5 billion represents extra benefit payments and lower tax
revenues; the remaining £8 billion is lost earnings to individuals,
affecting gross domestic product (GDP).
- The conclusion is that child poverty costs the country at
least £25 billion a year, including £17 billion that could accrue to
the Exchequer if child poverty were eradicated. Moving all families
above the poverty line would not instantly produce this sum. But in the
long term, huge amounts would be
saved from not having to pick up the pieces of child poverty and
associated
social ills.
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Third Sector Excellence Award 2008
- 20 October 2008
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Posted By:
Tim J Bissett
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The Church Urban Fund has been nominated for a Third Sector Excellence Award 2008 in the category ‘Innovation in Grant Making’. See here
The Third Sector Excellence Awards are intended to recognize and
celebrate the work of charities like CUF. They are now in their fourth year, and there
are 24 categories covering everything from direct mail to employee
innovation. The awards night is one of the high points of the voluntary
sector calendar. Yes - we'll be there!
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Church Times Article
- 20 October 2008
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Posted By:
Tim J Bissett
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"The poor will suffer most in financial crisis, charities warn"
by
Bill Bowder
AFTER governments announced a £2-trillion bail-out of banks across
the world this week, charities and churches were left wondering whether
there would be enough money left to help the poor.
The World Bank warned that the “unprecedented turmoil” in the
financial markets, the tightening of credit, and the global economic
slowdown could do “serious and in some cases permanent damage” to the
world’s poorest people.
This year, 100 million people have been driven
into poverty. “That number will grow,” the bank’s president, Robert
Zoellick, said on Sunday.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking in London on Wednesday,
at the end of a meeting of Christian and Muslim scholars, was asked who
was responsible for the financial crisis. Dr Williams told reporters:
“I was going to say Satan. . . The root problem is human greed.” The
priority given to the poor by Christianity and Islam was not always
reflected in the realities of economic activity, he said.
Ernese Skinner, policy and campaign manager of the Charity
Finance Directors Group (CFDG), warned that the crisis could see
matched funding from local authorities dry up, as they tried to recoup
their losses after the collapse of the investments they had made in
Icelandic banks. “It is the unfortunate who will suffer most,” she
warned.
Local authorities and charities, which are believed to have
invested about £1 billion in the banks, are not able to apply for
relief under the Government’s Financial Services Protection Scheme, she
said. For example, 99 charities, valued at a total of £230 million,
have investments in the Kaupthing Bank in Iceland, and most of these
are British.
CFDG has written to the Treasury to ask it to extend the
financial-services guarantee to cover all losses by charities —
including churches — after a meeting with Lord Myners at the Treasury
on Friday.
The Charities Aid Foundation, in a joint statement with CFDG and
other charity groups, has urged charities affected by the Icelandic
banking crisis to say who they are, so that the scale of the problem
can be assessed.
The Church Urban Fund’s chief executive, Tim Bissett, said the
situation could be returning to the way it was in the early 1990s, when
the Fund worked with the poorest city communities. “What the Church did
then was to show that it could rally to support poor people in this
country.
“We recognise the urgency of the economic downturn and its
effect on the poorest people in the community, and we will appeal to
those who can support us,” he said.
But on Tuesday Mr Bissett had not yet considered what would
happen if local authorities’ matched funding stopped. “If that stream
dries up, we could be asked to make much bigger grants.”
The Church’s national stewardship and resources officer, Dr John
Preston, said that giving had held up well in past downturns. “But for
capital funding projects like the church-roof appeal — those could be
much tougher in that environment.”
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