CVS Falkirk & District continues to support The Poverty Alliance’s Challenge Poverty Week campaign for another year by raising awareness of what local third sector organisations do to challenge and respond to poverty within our Falkirk communities – whether they deliver vital supports to communities on the themes related or campaign for a more fair and just society where poverty is eradicated for all.
The groups showcased include some of those supported by our Falkirk Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund which aims to support local activities tackling mental health inequalities, with a focus on those groups most impacted by socioeconomic disadvantage and the cost of living crisis. Whilst not an exhaustive list, we hope this represents the variety of support available within our local communities.
- Monday 7 October – Housing
CPW24 Mission Statement: We can build a Scotland where we all have safe, secure, warm and sustainable homes.
Friends of Scottish Settlers (FOSS) is an organisation of local people extending a hand of welcome and solidarity to newcomers to the Falkirk District. Having recently supported over fifty resettled people and families to make a new home in the Falkirk area, their volunteers help to ensure that people feel secure and supported in their accommodation through supplying essential items to those who need them and offering volunteer befriending to help newcomers settle into a new home in Falkirk, even if just for a short while.
For more information about the services FOSS offers, please visit their website: FOSS – Friends of Scottish Settlers (fossfalkirk.org.uk)
- Tuesday 8 October – Transport
CPW24 Mission Statement: We can build a Scotland where we can all get to where we need to go by making public transport more accessible and affordable to all.
Whilst this year’s mission statement reflects on the importance of public transport, we wanted to highlight a group who works to support vulnerable people in our local communities by being there when public transport is not an option. Home 2 Hospital is a volunteer-run charity supporting those in Larbert or Stenhousemuir going through cancer treatments by offering free, friendly and confidential personal transport to attend their hospital appointment or treatment sessions. Public transport can be unreliable or too daunting for patients during this vulnerable time, whilst other methods may be too expensive or not accessible to them – this is where Home 2 Hospital echoes the #CPW24 call to ensure a Scotland where we can all get to where we need to go.
For more information about the services Home 2 Hospital offers, please visit their website: Home2Hospital (home2hospital.org)
- Wednesday 9 October – Adequate Incomes
CPW24 Mission Statement: We can build a Scotland where we all have enough to live a decent and dignified life.
Cancer and its treatments can bring considerable additional costs and it can be difficult to manage practically. Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre’s help people take back control when cancer turns life upside down, with free professional support for anything from treatment side effects to money worries. A Maggie’s Benefits Advisor can help you to understand what benefits or other support applies to you if you have cancer or are caring for someone who does; fill out application forms; or discuss issues that come up as you go through the claims process or if your circumstances change over time.
For more information about the services Maggie’s offers, please visit their website: Maggie’s (maggies.org)
- Thursday 10 October – Food
CPW24 Mission Statement: We can build a Scotland where we live without hunger.
Home to Grangemouth Old People’s Welfare, Talbot House is a community hub, supporting their local area to tackle poverty and social isolation by hosting a lunch club every Tuesday and Thursday. Run entirely by volunteers, they have created a sense of community within their attendees and volunteers alike. Celebrating that for many, lunch clubs are a vital part of their day, a Talbot House volunteer said: “What I enjoy most about volunteering is seeing the faces of the old ones when we give them good meals as we always do. They look forward to coming here because quite frankly for some of them it’s the only time they get out of the house.” Whilst another volunteer recognised that the lunch club in providing warm meals, also creates a place for people to come and be happy: “I just think for me what really strikes me is the buzz, do you know? Watching the excitement of knowing they’ve got somewhere to come and to meet up – it’s just amazing, it’s really good. I’m so happy to be part of the community and to be able to come in, help out and see people’s faces is quite amazing actually.”
For more information about the services Talbot House offers, please visit their website: Talbot House (talbothousegrangemouth.com)
- Friday 11 October – Communities and Volunteers
CPW24 Mission Statement: We can build a Scotland where we value our communities and volunteers.
Since 2006, the overall objective of the Forth Valley Sensory Centre has been to help people who have sensory loss to live as independently as possible. They work to reduce physical and financial barriers by creating lifelong learning opportunities and wellbeing activities, all supported by volunteers (many of whom are within the sensory loss community themselves). During our recent volunteer exhibition, we were delighted by the response from the Sensory Centre with their eager desire to celebrate and recognise as many of their volunteers as possible – including bringing many of their team down to engage with the exhibition and reflect on the value of volunteering within Falkirk District as a whole. Certainly, the Forth Valley Sensory Centre team acknowledged: “We couldn’t function without our volunteers! They are instrumental in supporting everything we do. It is only through their dedication and hard work that we have been able to achieve what we have and we give them all our heartfelt gratitude.”
For more information about the services the Forth Valley Sensory Centre offers, please visit their website: Forth Valley Sensory Centre (forthvalleysensorycentre.org)
- Saturday 12 October – Reflection
CPW24 Mission Statement: This #ChallengePoverty week, we add our voices to the call to end the injustice of poverty within Scotland.
Poverty is one of the prevailing themes that is threaded through out most of the discussions and topics shared at our Forums and Networks. It is rarely discussed as a standalone topic – mainly because we know that poverty is multi-faceted and impacts on many different areas of life. This makes trying to identify actions to solve poverty incredibly challenging and too complex for one organisation or community to come up with. The power to make the wide-spread change needed often feels out of our hands and this can leave us experiencing feelings of frustration and sadness. We at CVS Falkirk & District believe it is more hopeful to focus on the change we can make locally and where we can best channel our efforts to achieve this. For us in practice, this involves coming together as a collective at our Forums and Networks to define our third sector voice; our ambitions for change; and engage in opportunities where we can learn and develop as well as lend our voice to influence change. Below, we have highlighted some of the work our Forums and Networks have achieved this year alone and the change we believe this continues to make on organisations and communities:
– Supported the launch of a small funding opportunity with Falkirk H&SCP to run events ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day. CHANGE: There is a strong correlation between levels of poverty and suicide. With the funding, local groups were run creative events to engage and raise awareness with their communities about this important topic and where there is support.
– Learn from someone with lived experience about the impact of trauma and adversity and access resources to embed a trauma informed approach to services. CHANGE: Organisations that are trauma informed are more likely to skilled and trained when working with individuals impacted by trauma. It is well known that poverty can exacerbate traumatic experiences and cause severe challenges in recovery.
– Feedback to a Scottish Government consultation on fairer funding principles for the third sector. CHANGE: Without fairer funding for the sector, services will continue to face erosion to their services which are critical to supporting those experiencing poverty and its related themes. We ensured that our sectors voice was represented and fed through to Scottish Government.
– Explore the impact of alcohol and drugs on families and individuals. CHANGE: Substance use, and poverty are strongly linked and it’s important to support the joined-up work of the local Alcohol Drugs Partnership and raise awareness of where services can signpost someone for addiction support.
If you would like to find out more about our Forums and Networks, please our dedicated webpage and/or email info@cvsfalkirk.org.uk.
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