ST ANDREW'S COMMUNITY NETWORK
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Mission Statement
The Network exists to resource churches and community organisations to design out poverty in the areas they serve. We intend to see people set free from the life affecting challenges that are a socio-economic consequence of their lived experience of poverty. We are committed to working alongside people in the communities we serve to enable them to live fulfilling lives – not just to be able to make ends meet and get by – but to find direction, purpose, and step into futures filled with hope and opportunity. We will help to resource people to build sustainable communities of belonging, change, connection, and purpose. We operate at a time when our communities, city, and region are struggling financially, with high levels of poverty, a fragile jobs market, a welfare programme that can be difficult to navigate, and in a continued environment of organisational austerity. Our business plan sets out our approach to effecting locally rooted change and growing our organisation over the next five years, in summary: In our journey as a charity since 2003, we have learnt how to deliver a model of care which makes the service we offer unique for the region. We ensure for every person we come into contact with, they can access the short or the long-term opportunities to: - Build financial resilience - Build food security - Belong to a sustainable and caring community These three endeavours form the principle components of our change toolkit. Through our commitment to these three overarching aims, we offer something more than being in debt; something more than the next meal; something more than the support to manage food price increase. We are building networks and communities where the socio-economic difficulties of living in poverty and deprivation can be addressed and overcome. Our community partners continue to help build up trust and raise levels of hope, particularly when we have been successful in signposting people to other organisations who can help them along the way. Yet despite a demonstrable track record of delivering impact we are committed to the vision we have to build a strong and successful network of communities not only with training to provide debt and welfare benefits advice and run community food spaces (no small thing) but also through establishing community networks where support over a range of issues may be offered by and for that particular community. Our Values Underpinning everything that we are involved in as a charity are our 5, long held values: Welcome - Embracing diversity with dignity and respect Hope - Helping each other discover alternative choices and new opportunities Empowerment - Walking alongside people at their pace to help them achieve their goals Excellence – Dedicated people doing exceptional things Love – Building relationships, family, friendship and faith.
About This Cause
The Why: We want to be a purposeful and purpose filled organisation. Understanding our ‘why’ is a key part of achieving this. Beyond our vision and mission, we exist to make the world a better place through our work to resource churches and community groups. Often the people in society who are in need are the most overlooked. Society and governments aren’t set up to protect everyone who needs it. That’s why we’re here – to fill the gaps and provide dedicated resources to help those gripped by poverty. In an ideal world charities like ours wouldn’t exist. A society where our communities, cities, and region are set free from the life changing consequences of poverty is what we’re collectively working towards. This type of real change takes work, we acknowledge that we can’t do it alone. Reader, however you engage with this plan, you could really help us in our work towards creating a society that benefits everyone, leaving no one behind. The What: Our primary offer centres around the development of Change Hubs and our Change Toolkit. The Who: The organisation is led by a Board of Trustees who seek additional guidance from a Council of Reference. Day-to-day leadership is delegated to our Chief Executive Officer and their Senior Leadership Team. The How: Our Change Hubs are community spaces, hosted by churches and other community groups, that are resourced to enact the three key elements within our Change Toolkit: Financial Resilience Initiatives – Debt Advice and Income Maximisation Advice; Food Security Initiatives – Foodbanks and Community Based Food Spaces; Building Sustainable Communities – Asset Based Community Development within Community Based Food Spaces It is our view that our commitment to change must be a sustainable one, to that end we will seek to ‘get it right’ in place before progressing on to the next location on our growth plan. The Numbers: The day-to-day operations of the organisations are supported by a team of paid staff and volunteers. Paid: Full time: 9; Part time: 12. Total: 21 (FTE 16.9). Volunteers: We have over 350 volunteers engaged in delivering the work to build financial resilience, food security, and sustainable communities across the network. Volunteer positions range from trusteeship, logistics operatives, van drivers, through to debt advisers. Our Beneficiaries Building Financial Resilience Last year we worked with 1,324 individuals across our Network to manage £10,536,127 worth of debt. Our support enabled those we work alongside to write off £806,921.04 worth of debt. Building Food Security Last, across our Network, the number of visits to our community food space/ pantry space increased by 24% which resulted in an overall saving for 1,750 families of £347,313. Through our Foodbank Network we provided food for 6,651 adults and 3,967 children. The numbers we will publish this year will see a significant increase the numbers of individuals that we support. The Need: Most of the areas we serve and will serve are in the 10% most deprived communities in the UK, with significant parts in the top 5% most deprived (Index of Multiple Deprivation). The Finances: Annually we need to generate in the region of £1.2million to sustain, develop, and grow our life changing work in Liverpool and beyond. A Local Change Network: Over the next 5 years we will continue to grow the organisation to be a resource for churches and community organisation to design out poverty in the localities that they’re rooted in. The development of our network as one that is committed to local change is where the investment of our resources will be placed. Background to the Charity: We have been supporting people in North Liverpool and surrounding areas since the charity's inception 20 years ago. The Network is led by people who are passionate about locally rooted change. We are driven by our Christian principles to support the most vulnerable, to serve local communities and to bring life in all its fullness, supporting people of all faiths, and none. The services provided as outlined below in the ‘What We Do’ part of this document have evolved from an asset-based approach that is rooted in the needs presented by individuals and communities. As a resource for local change, the services are now more defined and refined than they have ever been. It is our commitment through the delivery of this plan to sustain these services in the communities we currently serve, as well as those we are determining to support as part of our growth programme. What we do: Building Financial Resilience: As part of the wider vision to design out poverty in the communities we serve, we endeavour to eliminate the occurrence of financial crises that individuals in communities face. These crises are multi-faceted which requires us, as an organisation, to consider how we play our part in influencing wider systemic change. However, our core purpose is to address some of the causes of crisis, support long term prevention and recovery to ensure individuals know where crisis support is available. We have a strong reputation in the region for helping people build financial resilience. We do this by equipping, enabling, and then empowering members of communities, to provide the steppingstones towards the technical support that is provided via our money advice and debt support. Over the past 20 years we have developed a unique model for our money management service. At the heart of our offer is free, impartial, relational face-to-face money advice, supported by volunteers in communities who are equipped, enabled, and empowered to support the process from identifying a need to change, to the connection with the technical support available to bring about that change. This aspect of locally rooted people providing support to other locally rooted people is a key distinctive of our approach. This part of our work is referred to as Money Angels. The technical support within our Financial Resilience Team at a Change Resource Centre supports our commitment to compliance and excellence when it comes to the provision of support for those requiring debt advice, advice with welfare benefits, money education in community and educational settings, and referrals to additional support services as required. Building Food Security: As part of the wider vision to design out poverty in communities, we want to eliminate hunger. When our Network began the North Liverpool Foodbank in 2011 we could not have expected the demand for emergency food to grow to the extent it is today. The North Liverpool Foodbank partnership extends to 11 church and community-based distribution centres, 400+ voucher holding frontline agencies and an extensive network of supporters who volunteer time, money, and donated food to sustain our activities. We recognise that Foodbanks will be a necessary requirement of the food aid system for years to come. As with any Accident and Emergency department in a hospital, there will always be a need for crisis support. It is, therefore, incumbent on us to ensure that the individuals who access our Foodbanks are supported to move quickly from ‘triage’ to ‘recovery’. We have identified the following indicators of need that support our assessment of the long-term need for a Foodbank provision. Increased Operational Demands - Foodbank usage has risen significantly, and this increase is driven by the increased numbers of people who are in food poverty. The growth in numbers of vouchers holders; volunteers; administrative systems; media requests and numbers of donators and distribution centres has led to a greater complexity and demand on staff and volunteers. Individual ‘projects’ have improved the quality of our Foodbanks, bearing the burden of increased operational demand, including the introduction of fresh fruit and vegetables into the supply chain. Changing external environment - As The Network has been involved in delivery of Foodbank, our understanding of the issues of food poverty have changed and developed. Research estimates that foodbank usage represents just 1/7th of the food poverty agenda, with the much broader term of “food insecurity” used to capture this bigger picture. Food insecurity focuses on chronic poverty rather than acute. So, those who have enough money to put food on the table can often fall into the trap of offering food that limited in terms of choice and nutritional balance. It covers ‘access’ issues, whereby people in ‘poorer’ communities pay a premium for food or simply do not have access to things like fresh fruit and vegetables. It covers ‘capability’ – that is the knowledge or capacity to prepare home-cooked food. Building Sustainable Communities: We believe that sustainable communities grow as we build financial resilience and food security together. Our model encourages churches and community organisations to do both togehter as this is cost effective as Network overheads are shared across the two. Asset-based community development (ABCD) is an approach to community development that uses the skills and capacities of residents, the power of local associations, and the support of local institutions, to build stronger, more sustainable communities for the future. Throughout our 20-year history we have done our utmost to design out poverty in the communities that we serve, yet significant and long-lasting change seems elusive. The communities we serve through our change Network are still characterised by low income, material deprivation, poor health, unemployment, low educational attainment, and welfare dependency. In recent years we have begun to recognise that there is a way in which we can deliver a toolkit of resources created to support those in crisis, whilst using ABCD methodologies, through our community food spaces and the subsequent intention for them to develop into Local Change Hubs to support our ambition to design out poverty in the communities that we’re purposed to serve.