BU’s local poverty summit creates positive impact within the community one year on
A year's work after a poverty summit organised by Bournemouth University has led to a positive impact on the help available for people living in poverty in Bournemouth.
The Local Poverty, Reality and Response summit took place in June 2014 as part of BU’s Festival of Learning, and was attended by local authorities, community and faith groups – with the aim of understanding and addressing issues caused by poverty.
In the year since the summit, a number of schemes have been launched to tackle poverty across Bournemouth.
Local organisations have created a recycling scheme for access to affordable items to set up homes, while projects in Poole and Bournemouth have distributed ‘Home Starter packs’ for homeless people.
A range of cooking courses and community meals across the conurbation for young mums, ex-offenders, young people across multicultural groups, and others on low incomes have been also organised.
Free Anti-Loan Shark briefings and Financial Education training have taken place while funding for insulation schemes and tackling fuel poverty was granted.
Mark Phillips, a faith links project worker, who contributed to the effort, said: “There are long-term plans in the pipeline to continue the successful progress already achieved.
“These include: looking to reduce the cost of energy for residents across the conurbation; a second-hand clothing scheme for people who can’t afford clothes from charity shops; as well as developing a local ‘Fare Share’ Spoke that will deliver surplus food from supermarkets to groups.
“We are really pleased the Summit has created some lasting impact.”
Poverty Summit partners have also supported Dorset Community Foundation’s ‘Surviving Winter Campaign’ and crowd-sourced funding to provide support to a homeless person in crisis, while Bournemouth University students also collected more than two tonnes of food donations for the Big Feed - an initiative that will continue this year.
More than 150 people attended the Local Poverty, Reality and Response summit in June 2014 to discuss the realities of poverty in the local area and commit to action to address the issue.
Representatives from local authorities, community and faith groups as well as residents and businesses attended a series of workshops designed to help everyone work together to address issues caused by living in poverty.
Ian Jones, Head of Regional Community Partnerships said: "The issues surrounding the poverty agenda are an on-going challenge for the community as a whole and to host a poverty summit seemed a positive way to discuss those concerns.
“The event was successful in accelerating action to prevent, reducing the harm of poverty in the conurbation and allowed many people to share their experiences.”
Representatives from local authorities, community and faith groups as well as residents and businesses attended a series of workshops designed to help everyone work together to address issues caused by living in poverty.
“The event was successful in accelerating action to prevent, reducing the harm of poverty in the conurbation and allowed many people to share their experiences.”
BU's 2015 Festival of Learning is running from 11-17 July, with over 150 free events and activities - including The Hunger Games: Let's Win Together (Thursday 16 July, 6.30pm - 8.30pm) which explores local schemes to tackle food poverty. To find out more, and book free tickets, visit the Festival of Learning website
