How innovative parents beat poverty

Project
Community Entrepreneurs

Funding
Included nearly £1.65m from the ?government’s Child Poverty Unit

Purpose
To reduce child poverty by recruiting local parents to help others into employment

Background
In 2009, North Tyneside and South Tyneside councils successfully bid for funding to launch one of 10 pilots designed to tackle child poverty. The scheme aimed to harness the skills and knowledge of local parents to help other families. A new social enterprise, Tyne Gateway, was established.

Action
Organisations in deprived areas were asked to nominate active community members to participate in basic training developed in partnership with Sunderland University. The eight-week course was undertaken by 26 parents, with 25 going on to apply for one of 20 paid community entrepreneur jobs. The community entrepreneurs were then supported to research and develop projects designed to lift local families out of poverty, at the same time as embarking on a two-year foundation degree in community entrepreneurship, with Sunderland University.

Participants pitched their ideas to a panel, which included the councils’ two directors of children’s services. Seventeen community projects were launched including an energy advice scheme to help parents save money on bills; a teenage pregnancy prevention programme in schools; and a doorstep lending service to engage families with their local credit union instead of getting involved with loan sharks.

The fact community entrepreneurs are local parents who understand the day-to-day difficulties of surviving on low incomes was a key factor in the scheme’s success, says Jill Baker, project director of the Tyne Gateway initiative. “They were very successful at engaging ‘hard-to-reach’ families includ-ing those on the edge of more serious problems,” she says.

Outcome
The scheme was evaluated as part of the national pilot, which found it had helped increase employment, reduce child poverty and improved outcomes for children. As of June 2011 more than 200 parents had moved into training or employment after getting involved in community entrepreneur projects, while others were accessing other services and support. Tyne Gateway recently gained £900,000 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Improving Futures scheme to train a new wave of “family entrepreneurs”.

If you think your project or programme is worthy of ?inclusion, email supporting data to janaki.mahadevan@markallengroup.com