Home - Children in Poverty Inverclyde

Introduction

Our charity was formed on 7 January 2014 as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SC044563) to assist with alleviating poverty on children in Inverclyde.
We promote assistance for those who face daily challenges within our key priority areas of Poverty, Health, Equality and Participation.
Poverty can have a profound impact on the child, their family and the rest of society.

It often sets in motion a deepening spiral of social exclusion creating problems in education, employment, mental and physical health and social interaction.
Child poverty in Inverclyde has a rate of 25% with the area topping the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) listings in April 2020 depicting Greenock as the most impoverished town in Scotland.

The correlation between food poverty and child poverty is evidenced with Inverclyde Foodbank dispensing over 6000 food parcels to beleaguered families in the last year.

WHAT IS POVERTY?

Poverty is when your resources are well below your minimum needs.

Persistent poverty is defined as when a household has relatively low income both

in the current year and at least two out of the three preceding years.

Relative poverty used is when people live in a household with a disposable income that falls below 60% of the national median in the current year.

Working poverty is where incomes are below the poverty line due to lack of work hours and/or low wages.

Due to such low wages, those people face numerous struggles such as finding affordable housing, arranging transportation to and from work, buying basic necessities, arranging childcare, having unpredictable work schedules, juggling two or more jobs, and coping with low-status work.

In the last 5 years there has been a significant rise in working poverty caused by stagnant or falling wages for people in below-average paid jobs which offer vulnerable job security evidenced by the rapid growth of the Gig Economy and zero hours contracts.

Welfare benefits cuts and tax credits has greatly disadvantaged households with many seeing some of the welfare safety net being taken away.
The proportion of people in poverty who live in a working family is at a record high.

THE FUTURE

The coronavirus outbreak has triggered unprecedented mass layoffs and furloughs in the midst of the deepest global recession in peacetime.
Many large companies are no longer trading with resultant job losses in their thousands.
In Inverclyde, businesses have lost valued income and some might fail to re-open.
Small family owned business e.g. bakers, butchers and fruit & veg wholesalers who have improvised their normal customer base have been rewarded for their innovation and ability to react to change..

The effects of recession will be most felt by the unemployed and low income workers in job opportunity and an absence of savings to fall back on to provide for their children.
Children who grow up in poverty in Inverclyde are far less likely to do well at school than their better off classmates, seriously harming their future life chances and perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
Indeed, we risk creating a situation where poverty is so stark that children grow up in parallel worlds where rich and poor families have entirely different lifestyles that are poles apart.

OUR PROMISE

No child in our community should feel stigmatised or marginalised because of the impact of poverty.

We will make them feel valued and empowered to participate - on an equal footing - with their more affluent peers in all opportunities available to Inverclyde's children.

By providing holidays for impoverished families in the beautiful scenic location of the Cowal Peninsula, children and families alienated from society through poverty will enjoy great facilities with recreational and outdoor activities where they will be stimulated, energised, laugh and get them interested in life.

We will never be able to completely eradicate poverty but we can try and the impact of trying can bequite incredible and fulfilling.

   ‘Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity.
It is an act of justice.
                                    It is the protection of a fundamental
                                    human right, the right to dignity and
                                    a decent life .’
Nelson Mandela

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