Minister launches guide to help Communities First tackle child poverty

Minister for Social Justice Dr Brian Gibbons has launched a guide to help Communities First partnerships tackle child poverty in their areas. The Minister launched “Working with Children, Young People and Families –Guidance for Communities First Partnerships” at the Communities First annual conference at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea.

The guide aims to support Communities First partnerships gain a better understanding of the issues that impact on child poverty and to identify activity that will have a significant impact on the life experiences of children and young people.

The document contains several case studies of projects that have already made a significant contribution to addressing child poverty along with practical advice on identifying groups at risk of child poverty, and working in partnership both locally and nationally.

Launching the guide, Dr Gibbons said:

“Addressing child poverty is absolutely vital to ensuring the future prosperity of Wales and to the health and well being of its people. That is why this issue it is at the very heart of our agenda and why targeting concentrations of child poverty in our most disadvantaged communities is a key aim of the Communities First programme.

“We have put in a great deal of effort into tackling child poverty and we remain committed to doing all within the powers available to us to help eradicate child poverty by 2020. Work has now started on a new child poverty strategy to help us work towards this and our proposed Children and Families (Wales) Measure will also provide us with new powers to support our most vulnerable children and families.

“Tackling child poverty in all its forms requires strong partnership working within the Assembly Government itself and with the UK Government and our partners in the public and third sectors. Communities First Partnerships are amongst the most important of these as they both understand the needs of and are trusted by their communities to deliver the results with our help and guidance. This is why we must strive to work together to improve the lives of children and young people and their families.”