Child Poverty Manifesto blog by Ewan Taws

Posted on 07 Oct 2014 under Children's Voices, Previous Publications

Ewan Taws is part of a team of young people from across the UK who have been working on a child poverty manifesto written and produced by young people. The manifesto is due to be launched in Parliament on 15th October 2014. 

Young people from across the country have gathered once more to reinforce our strategy that we decided upon in London. Our location, Thurston Outdoor Activity Centre in the Lake District. All of us armed with a strong determination to eradicate the growing issue of Child Poverty.

Upon arrival we were thrown in at the deep end as we started to go through our twelve point action plan we had previously decided on. This led to many heated discussions about whether these points were how we wanted to take forth our project on a national basis.

In the end we decided upon six points.

1. Every family in Britain should meet a minimum standard of living, not just surviving

2. An equal school experience for all

3. Affordable, decent homes for everyone

4. Every young person should have access to three affordable, healthy meals a day, every day whether at school or at home

5. For all to feel, and be safe within their communities and at homes

6. Make sure all young people have affordable transport everywhere in the country.

These points were agreed by all of the group to be the best ways to tackle the issue nationwide. From these points we believe we will be able to push the government to see what actually needs to be done if they are to succeed in extirpating poverty from the UK.

On the closing day of our residential we began to develop our national actions and discuss and plan how we will get our strategy out through the media, a national launch or questions to MP’s. But before we left for our various corners of the country we had to decide on a project name, and after a lot of deliberation we as a group decided that we should name our project group Poverty Ends Now or PEN for short.

As a result of the residential I feel that the opportunity to write and develop both local and national strategies has extremely benefited all parties of whom were involved in this process which started so long ago, on behalf of all the young people involved,

I would like to thank Children North East, Rys and Sara for having us and taking us on a journey that will stick with us for our lives and has developed ourselves more than we could ever have imagined. Thank You!

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