Spotlight on 4in10 Member Education and Skills Development Group
How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
At the Education and Skills Development Group (ESDEG) we strive to alleviate child poverty through education in the London borough of Ealing. We run several programmes that provide support to the children belonging to refugee and deprived communities so that they can perform at par with the rest of their school cohort and enjoy a dignified childhood.
Supplementary Schooling: ESDEG was started to help children from refugee and deprived backgrounds to perform better in school. Around 2005 a bunch of us noticed that the attainment rate for children from refugee families in the Ealing was pretty dismal. Somali children were struggling in school and consistently underachieving, so we started after-school homework clubs. Our tutors not only provide children help with academic subjects in particular English, Mathematics and Science, but also offer a safe space to share their experiences in and about school.
Summer Camps: Over summer and other holidays we team up with other local organisations to organise camps, family fun days, seaside trips, sports and other recreational activities because we realise that some of the parents from deprived backgrounds cannot afford to take their children on holidays and day outs.
Family and Schools Partnership: Our work with children and parents made us realise how much some parents from deprived backgrounds whose first language is not English struggle to communicate with the teachers and school staff. The challenge gets multiplied for parents who were not raised in the British education system. From this stemmed our next service, our Family Support Liaison Officers work as a communication bridge between schools and children and their parents. One of the major issues our liaison officers are working on are school exclusions, both formal and informal. We have also produced a research document based on case studies of exclusion cases among the Somali community in Ealing (report available in our website www.esdeg.org.uk)
Youth Mentoring Project: This project is designed to provide individual and group mentoring to inspire young people; help raise their self-esteem and aspirations; improve their attainment and behaviour; and reduce the likelihood of exclusions, crime and anti-social behaviour. We motivate them to study and succeed in life by looking up to successful role models. Moreover, we equip our mentees with the resilience, emotional intelligence and growth mindset to help them overcome their barriers. Our experienced mentors provide structured and engaging sessions to young people from minority backgrounds, offering guidance, support and encouragement aimed at developing the competence and character of their mentees. Young people often disclose concerns and problems that parents/carers and school staff are not aware of. Our mentors also detect and report any safeguarding concerns and help young people overcome issues of abuse, bullying, radicalisation, neglect etc.
Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Project supports children in Ealing with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Our aim is to bridge the gap between families, schools and the Local Authority by working with both the parents and the children to ensure the child is receiving all the support they need for educational success. Our specialised staff focus on identifying the reasonable adjustments a child with SEND may need to reduce the disadvantages they face as well as providing extra encouragement in their learning and support with physical and personal care difficulties.
Tell us something you are excited about?
ESDEG’s integrative therapist has recently launched an initiative which encourages school children to express themselves through art. These exercises have been very effective with children who suffer from anxiety. Children not only express themselves more candidly through colours and pencils, they enjoy the process and are eager to come back for more. Seeing the success of this initiative, our counsellor is planning to expand this to other children as well.
Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service?
Last year (2020-2021) we supported over 180 students through our supplementary schooling – helping to raise their academic achievement, self-esteem, and social skills. Over the last seventeen years since ESDEG started, we have seen the children who attended supplementary schools improve their performance in school, secure college places and go on to have successful careers.
What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
ESDEG works with refugee and minority communities, the so-called hard-to-reach target groups. One of the main reasons for our successful outreach is that many of our staff are from minority backgrounds ourselves. Not only do we belong to the same community and speak the same languages, we understand the cultural and religious nuances which enhance communication and our clients feel confidence in our ability to provide them with high quality services.
What would most help you achieve your goals?
Like the other grassroots organisations we are also striving to operate with a limited pot of funding. Added to that is our struggle to secure office and training/meeting spaces for our day to day activities in the Ealing borough of London. The third challenge we face is in recruitment, training and retaining our staff. We feel that we could concentrate on our work a lot better if these administrative issues could be sorted.
Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
To connect with like minded organisations who are working with disadvantaged groups. Also being part of the 4in10 network helps us be part of the collective voice of the sector.
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Spotlight on 4in10 Member Praxis and the NRPF Action Group
How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
Praxis is a charity for migrants and refugees. We provide immigration advice, housing and peer support and through all of these ways our work helps to protect children from poverty. We have become a leading expert in finding pathways out of destitution and supporting migrants facing homelessness, and our training and campaign work has national and international impact. Our core purpose is to help migrants in crisis or at risk, ensuring they can live in safety, overcome the barriers they face, and take control of their own destinies. You can read more about our strategy here, find us on Facebook, Twitter and our website here.
As part of this work, we facilitate the No Recourse to Public Funds Action Group, which is made up of campaigners with lived experience of the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) policy, to build campaigns to end this policy. You can find out more about our campaign, and read the NRPF Action Group’s manifesto calling for the end of NRPF here.
Tell us something you are excited about?
We are really excited that the group has decided to focus on campaigning for free school meals. The overarching goal of our campaign is to ensure free school meals for all children living in poverty, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. We’re launching with a specific call to the Government to make permanent the temporary extension of free school meals to some groups of children living in poverty affected by No Recourse to Public Funds, which was brought in during the pandemic.
We are also calling for free school meals for all children in poverty, regardless of immigration status, to take into account the fact that children with insecure immigration status are not covered by the extension of eligibility.
Our policy briefing sets out our campaign asks in more detail – you can find that here;
Additionally, here are some posts you can share if possible:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PraxisCommunityProjects/posts/325409016299148
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Praxis_Projects/status/1500765019050500096
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CazDWYtoCQa/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6906533946969186304
If you can support our campaign on social media, in your email networks and newsletters, this would be hugely appreciated! Please do reach out if you would like to collaborate in any way!. Any support you can offer to our campaign is hugely welcomed and thank you for all you do – Pascale.robinson@praxis.org.uk
Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service?
We were one of the organisations that helped to uncover the Windrush Scandal originally and we’re proud to have been part of the work to campaign to change the system.
What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
- We can offer advice for those who need help navigating the migration system: Get Help — Praxis for Migrants and Refugees.
- We are experts in finding pathways out of destitution and supporting migrants facing homelessness. Please reach out to collaborate on this!
- We can offer training on the immigration system for a variety of organisations (depending on our capacity).
What would most help you achieve your goals?
We want to make sure that migrants can live in safety, overcome the barriers they face, and take control of their own destinies. To do this, we campaign for systemic change. We’re building alliances and working in partnership with experts by experience to create positive, long-term changes to the policies and practices that create exclusion and destitution. We’d love to collaborate on work to achieve these goals!
Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
Though we have only been in contact with the 4in10 team for a short while, 4in10 has already provided a brilliant chance to forge connections and collaborate with other amazing organisations working in the capital!
We are so looking forward to working together more, especially on our campaign to make sure all who need them have access to free school meals regardless of their immigration status.
Spotlight on Restorative Justice for All
Spotlight Interview with 4in10 Member RJ4A
- How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
The Restorative Justice for All International Institute (RJ4All) is a charitable, user-led NGO with a mission to address poverty and advance community cohesion and human rights. We redistribute power in a more equal way by delivering social justice and poverty relief projects, educational programmes, intercultural dialogue, internships and high-quality volunteering opportunities to the most marginalised groups of society. Child poverty in London is not only a reality, but also a persistent societal failure. That is why we put emphasis on making a difference by providing local direct services from the RJ4All Rotherhithe Community centre, where we are based. It is not possible to achieve equality and community cohesion, if poverty and disadvantage are not rooted out first.
Since COVID19, we prioritized poverty relief and wellbeing projects, focusing on making a change locally and by prioritizing services for groups who are faced with extra challenges. One of these groups are children and young people in the South East London area where we are based. These local services are provided from the RJ4All Rotherhithe Community Centre, which has become a hub of community empowerment and cohesion. It offers a food-bank, a community fridge, free sport classes, a community library, COVID19 tests and educational workshops to children, young people and professionals. It is also a safe place for anyone who wants to pop in for a coffee, use our facilities or just chat with our interns, volunteers and team.
- Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service.
Last year, RJ4All was the recipient of the Best Charity Award from the Southwark Business Awards due to its youth-led COVID-19 poverty relief project “You are not Alone”. During the pandemic, children and young people came together and with the support of the RJ4All Director, Dr. Gavrielides, they set up the project to help their peers who were struggling. The project started with a small grant that RJ4All managed to secure, providing food and PPE to children, young people and their families. It then quickly expanded across London, resulting in generating over 500 volunteer placements, a mental health helpline run by children and young people for children and young people, online courses and a bank of online resources, internships and online fitness classes. The project is now under the auspices of the independent youth-led FRED campaign, hosted by RJ4All. Dr. Gavrielides also received the Southwark Civic Award 2021 as a result.
- What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
We encourage members to learn more about restorative justice and its underlying value of power sharing. Restorative justice is not just a justice practice. It is an ethos and a methodology for carrying out projects, or even how to lead our lives. We would be happy to introduce members to restorative justice and we encourage them to take our free CPD certified courses by visiting https://rj4all.uk/online/
- What would most help you achieve your goals?
Our mission is to address poverty and advance community cohesion and human rights. We do this by using the power of education, sports and art, as well as the practices and values of restorative justice including power sharing, fairness, equality, dignity and respect. We start locally and thus any support for our community service provision in SE16 London would be much appreciated. Our food bank and community fridge are always in need for stocking up!
- Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
We were very pleased to join the campaign in October (London Challenge Poverty Week), and we very much enjoyed working with the network given that we share similar values and goals. We often operate in silos making our work harder and our impact smaller. By connecting our minds and hearts, we come closer to addressing power abuse and the inequality that impacts on our children.
Spotlight Interview with Voices of Hope
4in10 Member, Voices of Hope, share their work.
How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
Voices of Hope was established to help restore and rebuild hope in individuals, improving physical and mental health through community based projects. We work with groups across our community including families and individuals at risk of food insecurity, women who have experienced domestic violence/abuse and those with complex physical and or mental health issues. VoH also run a community choir and an innovative breathing support service.
Our BRITE (Building Resilience In Today’s Environment) Box project is a weekly recipe meal kit containing all the ingredients and a step by step, child friendly, illustrated recipe guide to resource and enable families to enjoy preparing and eating a healthy meal. We work closely with the Local Authority, Voluntary Sector and schools to reach families who will benefit most from engaging with the project and each family joins BRITE Box for a school year, receiving a new recipe meal kit every Friday.
Beyond the need to help children in immediate food poverty through providing a weekly balanced family meal at no cost, BRITE Box also addresses the impact of food scarcity on children through increasing skills, confidence and enjoyment in trying new foods and cooking from scratch – a life skill which can have a long term impact on physical, emotional and mental health and wellbeing.
We have also set up The Good Food Co-Op, a not for profit spray free, fresh fruit and vegetable box scheme, with the aim of ‘making healthy, fresh produce accessible to all’. Every box purchased by customers allows us to offer heavily subsidised boxes to referral customers, with community cooking events and courses planned for 2022.
Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service.
BRITE Box has grown from 40 boxes a week in May 2020 to 450 boxes delivered to families each week across Kingston, Richmond, Southwark and Elmbridge. We have worked very closely with Local Authorities, schools, businesses, volunteers and VCS partners to create a truly community led project. However, our main achievement is the engagement and feedback we have received from families and schools taking part in BRITE Box.
“It helped me out when I was struggling and shows how cheap it can actually be to buy and make food from scratch”
“It was amazing, I learned new recipes and it created a great task for me and the kids to do together, a weekly treat, it gave the kids something to look forward to”
“I haven’t seen a project so well engaged with and so embraced by staff, children and adults. It is particularly impressive how enthusiastic the children have been through and how engaged they have remained. the collaboration of adults engaging with and talking to the children has been fantastic. It has built confidence, communication and self-esteem”. (School Head)
What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
Effective partnership and working across the statutory, VCS and private sectors has been vital to the continued development and funding of BRITE Box. We place a high value on working relationally – listening, learning and sharing experiences.
What would most help you achieve your goals?
In order to allow more families to take part in BRITE Box we are keen to develop diversified sustainable funding streams and partnerships with like-minded community partners in other areas. We predominately serve Kingston, Richmond, Southwark and Elmbridge but are keen to work with others to serve other parts of London as we grow.
Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
4in10 provides a fantastic opportunity to be part of a network to learn, share insights and work together with a collective voice to reduce inequality across London.
For more on VOH go to https://www.voh.org.uk/index.html and if you are interested in partnering with us please get in touch.
Members Spotlight: West London Zone
SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW
West London Zone
- How are you helping young people in London?
We help children and young people build the relationships and skills they need to get on track Socially, Emotionally and Academically. We call this creating a SEA change.
We believe that by targeting these key areas of development we can empower children to fulfil their potential.
We work in West London - an area of deep inequality where 1 in 5 children and young people aren’t getting the support they need to thrive. Our research shows that there are 12,000 children and young people currently living in our community that need additional support.
- Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns we adapted quickly to provide online support to children and young people. In the first lockdown, between 23 March - 17 July, we provided on average 3 Link Worker interactions per child per week. We also delivered remote support, working really closely with our partners to adapt to this way of delivering.
Now that we are able to provide face to face support, we are extending it for those who would normally be finishing their two-year programme in July to provide experiences and opportunities until the end of August.
Our aim is to offer children the opportunity to participate in sport, drama, music, art and crafts and a range of trips and visits - as well as accessing some additional support from where needed.
These activities will support them with much needed social interaction with their peers, to promote positive emotional wellbeing and have the chance to take part in some fun-filled activities after a very challenging year.
We raised £21,135 this month to go towards funding these activities throughThe Childhood Trust’s Champions for Children campaign!
- What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
We have a funding model that sees each child supported by their local council, central government, their school and philanthropy. This means we are not reliant on one source of funding alone and can provide more support with these parties together than any one of them on their own.
We work to ensure that every child gets on track socially, emotionally and academically – and we have designed our funding model in a way to help us deliver this. Our commissioners pay us in instalments over the course of a child’s two-year programme, when we provide evidence of their participation in the programme and their progress at the end.
With payment explicitly tied to each individual, we are driven to achieve for every single child on our programme.
Our funding model means we work really collaboratively with our funders and partners - we have learnt a lot about how to do this effectively over the years. You can find more about our insights on this in our most recent Impact Report.
- What would most help you achieve your goals?
We are continuing to be purposeful and strategic with our aims for growth so that we can reach more of the 12,000 children in our Zone that could benefit from our support. We are growing so we can be truly 'deep' in our place - supporting children across the community and working together to impact a generation of young people in West London. We’ve grown quickly, and aim to support 3,000 children and young people a year by 2025.
We have a big ambition - and we are focused on one place. By working with local organisations and people, we think it is possible to enable all children in our community to have access to the support they need to thrive in adulthood.
- Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
4in10 is a really important network, and we believe it’s important to constantly share our insights and learn from other organisations. We really enjoy receiving 4in10’s newsletter filled with details on events and opportunities for organisations. 4in10 do a brilliant job of bringing together organisations to unite to tackle inequality in London.
Spotlight on 4in 10 member Art Burst
SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW
ARTBURST
- How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
We are a creative education not-for-profit company, so where we can’t directly tackle child poverty we can help and support families and children who are living in poverty through our workshops and online resources to offer fun, quality time while building their confidence, communication skills, increasing pride in their achievements to help them in their educational attainment and alleviate the effects of poverty. We offer lots of fun online activities for individual families for after school fun, weekends or holiday times which are free of charge. Browse through our Resources page on the website or follow us on Instagram and Facebook, You Tube. There are lots of things to dip in and out of from home. If you’re from a school, Children’s Centre or other community organisation you can access the resources in groups, or signpost them to your parents/children. There are free video, stories, craft and singing resources with downloads of Step-by-Step guides, craft templates, visual timetables - everything you need for your session planning or assemblies. Check out our latest Animal Safari and No Pens Day resources.
We specialise in communication-focussed projects which help all children with their communication skills, whether they have identified Speech and Language Needs, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities or speak English as a second language at home or not. We make the resources accessible with Makaton and BSL where we can.
In May our online ‘Monster Mayhem’ festival launches. This year, after such a difficult one, the festival is designed to support children in their mental well-being after the lockdowns. A specially composed story of 'Marge Monster' takes children on a journey that reflects their experience of COVID through a fictional monster’s eyes, exploring the isolation of lockdown, fears, worries about getting back to playing or going to school with encouraging messages for re-building friendships and importantly, sharing their thoughts and anxieties towards re-building their resilience and mental well-being. This is important for all children and especially children from poorer families who may live in more cramped housing and went through lockdowns with no gardens or outside space. They may have daily said ‘bye mum/dad/sister/brother’ in the early morning or evening to those who were heading off for shift work in some of the most risky jobs in lockdown: Bus Drivers, Frontline Healthcare workers; Cleaners; Postal and Delivery Workers; and may have had very real and difficult fears. We mustn’t forget too that some lower income families have had drastic personal tragedies through continued illness and bereavement of parents or relatives through the pandemic. Our festival hopes to help children to look forward to better times for their play, education and mental well-being. Monster Mayhem launches on May 3rd and is available throughout May.
- Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service.
Comments we get from children, parents schools and partners is amazing. It really spurs us on!
When children and families say things like ‘It was VERY, VERY, VERY fun!”; ‘It really helped him verbally’ ‘Fantastic! Artburst listened carefully to what we wanted and the students really enjoyed the project’.
Feedback from teachers and parents shows high percentages (75%-100%) of positive benefits, saying children have boosted their confidence, have improved in their communication skills and felt proud of what they’ve achieved.
- What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
We’d be delighted to hear from network members if they’d like to work in partnership with us or know more about what we can offer. Where there’s an evidence of need we can work together to gain funding to offer tailored creative activities for your group or organisation, to offer creative education for your groups and organisations. Please get in contact with us.
- What would most help you achieve your goals?
In lockdown we got funding through the London Community Response Fund/National Lottery Community Fund to develop online content. We reached so many more families and schools across London. We aim to carry on the online work alongside our in-school and community face-to-face workshops when safe. We need to increase our staff capacity and find ways to support the costs of that to reach as many children who need our projects as possible.
- Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
As a team we’re all aware of the effects of child poverty and what that means for children in their real and everyday lives. It’s really important for us to be part of this network - we’re kept up to date and learn lots from the reports and publications we hear about in the 4in10 newsletters and we read news of what other organisations are doing. The 4in10 network is a ‘must join’ network. Thanks for all you do there, it is really important work.
Contacts:
For general enquiries info@artburst.co.uk
For partnership enquiries jane@artburst.co.uk
Website: www.artburst.co.uk
Follow us on Instagram @artburst
Follow us on Twitter @artburstltd
Like us on Facebook @artburstltd
Spotlight on 4in10 member organisation, Rainbow Money Advice
Interview with Stuart from 4in10 member organisation Rainbow Money Advice
SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW
RAINBOW MONEY ADVICE, BARNET
- How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
Rainbow Money Advice, established in 2015, is a service provided by Barnet Community Projects, and affiliated with Community Money Advice. We are based in the Rainbow Centre in a deprived part of the London Borough of Barnet.
Our aim is to give help and hope to people with money problems. This is achieved by providing a free of charge money advice service that helps people deal with their debts, budgeting, and welfare benefits issues. The service provides advice by appointments on Tuesdays. We work closely with our colleagues Sarah and Jeanette, who run the Dollis Valley Angels emergency food delivery service at the Rainbow Centre, and with Anne and her team running a Lunch Club with activities for local school children in the school holidays.
- Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service.
As at the end of February 2021, we had held over 800 interviews, and helped 180 clients/families. There have been cash successes of over £176,000 in annual awards (mostly welfare benefits, and savings in expenditure) – and over £130,000 in one-off gains, which include having debts cancelled and grants awarded. Other successes include obtaining white goods and furniture for those who cannot afford them. Several people who had been sleeping on the floor now have beds. We have also helped make successful applications for Blue Badges, and Disabled Persons’ Freedom Passes. We were delighted to be recently chosen to be Winner of the Barnet Group’s Community Group of the Year.
A memorable case, which highlights the work we do, concerns a woman diagnosed with a personality disorder, who had attempted suicide. She incurred substantial rent arrears. A successful application to Barnet Council for a Discretionary Housing Payment cleared the arrears and fortunately avoided eviction for our client and her four-year-old child.
- What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
Small agencies like ours do not have numerous volunteers and staff to discuss issues and share experiences. It’s important, therefore, to build relationships with advisers in other agencies, and to participate in shared events, such as those provided by Money Advice Groups. It’s also important to forge links with local charities providing mutual sources for signposting and referrals.
The Coronavirus pandemic has of course created many challenges for advisers and our clients. We postponed our face-to-face appointments and replaced them with a remote service. Some success has been achieved holding interviews by video, using Zoom and What’s App. Being able to see your clients works best, as non-verbal clues can be missed over the phone. Unfortunately, not all clients can afford, or are able to use, this sort of technology. Many clients seeking debt advice invariably brought large bundles of letters from creditors (often in unopened envelopes). Some clients have now been able to scan and email documents to us; whilst others have learnt to take photos with their mobile phones and send them to us by What’s App.
One positive from the pandemic is that it created the time and opportunity for money adviser Stuart to study online for the Certificate in Money Advice Practice. This was provided by the Institute of Money Advisers with Staffordshire University (and kindly funded by Barnet Community Projects and the Thames Water Trust Fund). The course is excellent, highly recommended, and the knowledge gained helps us to provide a much-needed service.
- What would most help you achieve your goals?
More time and more volunteers = more money! We are a small charity with limited resources, and there is a huge demand for appointments. Our service has been a victim of its own success as the word has spread. What started with helping people living across the road in the local estate has grown beyond expectations. Clients are being signposted/referred by numerous organisations, including local GPs and schools. Our aim is to expand, to provide a service on several days of the week with a presence in other parts of the Borough. We have started training new volunteers, and trainee Fanta (with experience gained at the Barnet Refugee Service) has already helped to advise clients. More funding will enable us to train more volunteers and achieve our goals.
- Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
As already mentioned, networking is very important. 4 in 10 is a great organisation, with a shiny new website providing access to hundreds of great organisations, many of which have shared information and contacts with Rainbow Money Advice. We always look forward to 4 in 10’s emailed Newsletter. This is packed with essential information about events, surveys, campaigning, reports, job opportunities – and the all-important details of grants for clients, and funding for organisations. It was through 4 in 10 that we experienced the inspiring London Child Poverty Week conference. We are grateful to 4 in 10 for bringing together the organisations and resources which will help us all tackle child poverty in London.
Contacts
For more information about Rainbow Money Advice, email Stuart Goodman on moneyadvice@barnetcp.org.uk or phone 07981 760 399 (Tuesdays and Thursdays).
For further information about Barnet Community Projects, our Dollis Valley Angels Project, or Lunch Club, email Steve Verrall on steveverrall@barnetcp.org.uk or phone 07946 728515.
Spotlight Interview - Little Village
https://littlevillagehq.org
- How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
Little Village is like a foodbank, but for clothes, toys and equipment for babies and children up to the age of 5. In 2021 we’re marking our 5th Anniversary, and we’ve grown to become of the largest ‘baby banks’ in the UK, supporting over 11,000 children since we launched in 2016. Families are referred to us via a network of over 1,800 professionals such as midwives and social workers. As a volunteer-led movement of parents committed to alleviating child poverty, Little Village’s vision is that every child in the capital has the essential items they need to thrive. The families we help are facing a range of challenges – homelessness, unemployment, low wages and domestic violence. 1 in 3 of the families we support are homeless or living in temporary accommodation. In normal times, we support families from all over London, and currently have sites operating in Battersea and Camden.
- Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service.
Despite the constraints of lockdown, we supported 7000 children in 2020, the highest ever number, which we think is a huge achievement. In normal times, families would visit us at our sites around London. However, with the advent of coronavirus, we’ve had to temporarily close our doors to families and completely re-design our whole operation to become what we’re calling a #VirtualVillage. We are currently operating a delivery service to families, using a mix of volunteer drivers and bicycle and van couriers to help us get the items to families. As well as providing practical support, we are also keen to support families emotionally, which is particularly crucial with lockdown as families feel more socially isolated than ever. For example, our volunteers are calling over 100 families each week to build and deepen our relationships with them. In addition, we are connecting with families virtually and we recently hosted a virtual coffee morning with 30 mums where families had an opportunity to connect, chat and share their lockdown experiences.
- What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
As well as supporting families in the short term, we are working hard to tackle child poverty in the long term by continuing to raise awareness of the issue. For example, last week to mark our 5th Anniversary, we published a new report, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, looking at the rates, persistence and depth of poverty in families with young children. The research found 1.3 million of the 4.2 million children in poverty in the UK are babies and children under the age of 5. It also highlighted the impact of the Covid pandemic on low-income families with young children. Our new research led BBC 2’s Newsnight programme, which featured a report by Katie Razzall, it’s UK Editor who interviewed our founder Sophia Parker and Vicky Jones, a mum we have supported. The next day, the PM Boris Johnson was asked a question about our report in PMQ’s by Ian Blackford MP, the SNP Leader in Westminster (10.48 in). We also shared the results of the survey in a webinar with over 180 participants. The webinar will be available to watch on our website soon.
- What would most help you achieve your goals?
We strongly believe in the power of collaboration to make change happen. There are a growing number of baby banks around the UK and we’re keen to work with them to amplify the voices of families we’re supporting. You can find out more about how you can get involved with our work here or please do get in touch directly with our new CEO Sophie Livingstone via sophie@littlevillagehq.org.
- Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
We think the 4in 10 network is a great way of continuing to engage in advocacy work by keeping across important information about research and advocacy in the area of child poverty. It also provides a collaborative platform in which to connect with other organisations working to end child poverty. Thank you for all the work you are doing to bring organisations together!
Spotlight Interview - Westminster Befriend a Family
https://www.befriendafamily.co.uk
- How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
Westminster Befriend a Family (WBAF) enables people to break out of cycles of poverty, and mitigate its impact with the support and accompaniment of trained and supervised volunteers. We runs mentoring programmes for parents and young people in Westminster and the surrounding boroughs. ‘Mentoring for Mums’ is a programme we’ve just launched, that supports mums of children aged five who are facing challenges and who want to make positive changes in their lives with the support of a volunteer mentor. With support to build confidence, identify and achieve goals, find the specialist support needed and get unstuck, our programme helps mums into employment and education, as well as providing practical, emotional and social support. Similarly, ‘Broadening Horizons’ our mentoring programme for young people aged 10 – 24 offers regularly one-to-one support on a weekly basis from trained volunteers, with a goal-focused approach to setting aspirations, building connections and reducing loneliness.
- Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service.
With the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, since the first lockdown in March 2020, we managed to not only continue our services, but to massively increase our provision, tripling the number of people we supported in the last year as we expanded and introduced new programmes. We took everything online and after a few lumps and bumps, we’d got into the swing of things by April. Our brilliant volunteers were the linchpins in our success: they’ve helped us with volunteer recruitment drives, adapting to online working and their commitment to supporting families experiencing challenges has been unstinting, despite difficulties with communication and a hugely unpredictable environment. Because of the trusting relationships they built up, they were able to identify when families needed additional support with food, financial advice or IT equipment, and we were able to rapidly connect them to the right organisations so that their needs were met within days.
- What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
Our volunteers have their fingers on the pulse of the community – because of the relationships they build up, they often get to hear about problems people might be experiencing before others are aware of them, which means we can respond quickly to individual or collective issues. With our signposting and referral system, we can make sure people are connected to the right services. We’re always keen to hear from organisations who support families and young people, so that we can connect them to the support they need, as well as taking referrals from them too.
- What would most help you achieve your goals?
We’re growing, and we’re always looking for more mentors – compassionate people with time to give, as well as an understanding of the challenges that some disadvantaged parents and young people are managing: Volunteers can apply here! We offer full training and ongoing support and supervision, as well as Tempo Timecredits so you and your mentee can grab a coffee together when you’re able to meet!
- Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
As a small organisation, we don’t have much capacity to independently engage in policy and advocacy work, but we know that our experiences and the voices we can channel need to be heard. Being part of the 4in10 network enables us to contribute to the systemic change that tackles the root causes of the challenges that our families and young people face. The information I get from 4in10 is really relevant for me and helps me stay abreast of a vast and rapidly changing field of research and advocacy so that our programmes and funding applications are well-informed – thank you!