YOU don’t need to look far to see the impact poverty has on people in Glasgow. Most of the highest ten areas for deprivation in Scotland are in the city.

Just under half of the city’s population live in the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in Scotland.

Calton is the most deprived in the country with child poverty running at 49%.

All the factors which lead to poverty can be seen in the east end community.

Long term unemployment, lack of access to employment, lower than average qualifications, welfare reform.

Despite the area being one of the poorest in the country the DWP decided to close the Jobcentre in Bridgeton.

To get support in searching for work and to apply for benefits people were instead sent to Shettleston instead.

Calton however, is also home to a community fightback where people are not accepting their fate is deprivation and are seeking an alternative future for their children.

The Calton Child Poverty Action Network was set up by local people and when the council went to see it, they were handed a list of actions that could help them help themselves.

It is a model for the future where the ambition is for people and communities to inform the change needed.

Across the city, authorities working with communities, not just in them, is seen as the way to help people out of poverty and towards a better life.

The Poverty Leadership Panel is one of the initiatives that has been set up between the council and the voluntary sector.

Innocent Jakisa is co-chair of the panel and a member of the Community Activist Panel.

He said: “With Lived experience of poverty I can use this experience to raise awareness of how difficult life can be when you are in poverty with passion, as it’s something I have been through.

“I believe the CAAP can use our work and our experiences to become a stronger voice and hold those in power accountable for decisions that affect vulnerable people in Glasgow.”

Efforts to fund and empower existing community groups and enable new ones to start are at the heart of what is hoped to be an approach that strengthens communities and equips them with the skills and networks to tackle poverty.

Allan Gow, Glasgow City Council Treasurer, said: “With a new social security system being established we now have a chance of a different way of supporting people. A chance for a different conversation on what will and will not work and a chance to make a strategic difference in how we reduce and eradicate eh scourge of poverty.

“Only by working together across all agencies can local and national government make the impact required.

Useful contacts:

povertyleadershippanel.org.uk

Universal Credit Support service 0808 169 9901

www.gain4u.org.uk