February 20, 2015 10.03 am This story is over 109 months old

Lincoln to host second conference against poverty

Lincoln against poverty: More than 150 representatives from 75 organisations will join together at the second annual Lincoln Against Poverty Conference.
The Lincoln Poverty Conference. Photo: Stuart Wilde

More than 150 representatives from 75 organisations will join together at the second annual Lincoln Against Poverty Conference.

The event, on Tuesday, February 24, will take place with the aim of exploring ways of tackling poverty in the city.

The conference will feature keynote speaker Duncan Exley, Director of The Equality Trust, workshops on financial inclusion, isolation and poverty, child poverty, mental health and poverty, food poverty, multiple needs households and youth employment, as well as a presentation on Universal Credit, and the launch of a new campaign.

The first Lincoln Poverty Conference took place in February 2014 and featured more than 100 delegates. The event resulted in an Anti-Poverty Strategy being put in place and an action plan, with more than 70 tasks created.

Councillor Rosanne Kirk, Portfolio Holder for Social Inclusion and Community Cohesion, said: “Lincoln is a growing city with a vision in place to see its success continue to happen.

“The Growth Strategy sets out the aims and ambitions for the next 25 years. While we want to see growth, it needs to be a benefit for everyone which is why our Anti-Poverty Strategy underpins this.

“Having so many committed partners that want to work together to alleviate the short to medium term effects of poverty is fantastic.

“By bringing all these organisations together, we are giving them the opportunity to find out more about what each other does and how they can effectively support each other in the future. This is particularly important in times of austerity.

“The last conference gave us the real impetus to drive a number of projects forward that formed our action plan.

“This included Lincolnshire Credit Union moving in to City Hall, our successful ‘Say No To High Cost Borrowing’ campaign that took place in the run-up to Christmas and the new year, the development of a website for partners and the public and the creation of a food bank forum, giving partners a new way of working together.

“These examples are just a few of the many the council and partners around the city have been working on and we’re really excited by what the results of this year’s conference will be.”

The Lincoln Against Poverty twitter account, @lincolnvpoverty, will have a running commentary of the day. People can also join in the conversation by using #LAPC2015.