Wednesday 18th March
It was a pleasure to join the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) at their reception this evening, to mark the tenth anniversary of the Government’s pledge to end child poverty. When I worked in the voluntary sector this is an issue on which I campaigned with Daycare Trust, the End Child Poverty Campaign (where I was a trustee) and more recently with CPAG.

The Government is on track to have lifted over a million children out of poverty by 2010 through, however, much work remains to be done to eradicate child poverty by 2020. The recession is going to make this harder and I am hoping that there will be greater measures contained in this year’s budget to tackle child poverty. This might include improvements in benefits targeted at families on the lowest income, tackling the low wage culture in some industries and a fairer and more re-distributive tax system. We also still need to achieve equality of access to jobs, housing, education and healthcare.

Wednesday 25 March
I joined Cllr Pat Hawkes at the Coldean Local Action Team (LAT) meeting and chatted to residents about the improvements they had seen in crime and anti-social behaviour since the LAT was set up. There is now a need to find funding for better youth facilities in the area including improvements to the football pitches at Coldean School so that the Coldean Colts can compete equally with other teams in the league.

Thursday 26 March
I spent a bit of time with David Lepper MP today visiting various places around the City including the Earthship in Stanmer Park where I met Mischa Hewitt, the project manager.

The Earthship is a low carbon building constructed from materials such as old tyres, glass bottles and reclaimed timber, but it is not just about using materials, it is a sustainable building concept. It is based on living within our means, self-sufficiency and using renewable, abundant natural resources such as sunlight, wind and rain.

Here is a picture of us outside The Earthship that “gathers and uses all of the resources from immediately around it”

Friday 27 March
I visited TB Alert for my annual catch-up with them and they explained to me their desire for shift from a medical to a social model to tackle TB. This is something that has been used to great effect in tackling HIV/AIDS or sexual health issues.

Whilst the medical model has achieved good clinical TB services in the UK, TB Alert want affected communities to have greater involvement in the response to TB as they are often best placed to work with clinical and allied health workers to bring about awareness and change to stigma and discrimination. They have also been key to lobbying and advocating to governments for research, service development, education and health promotion funding.

After TB Alert, I joined the Brighton Unemployed Families Project to discuss the development of a volunteering strategy for Brighton and Hove. It was an interesting event and I find out some useful information about volunteering in the City. For example, did you know that the vast majority (69%) of volunteers here are between 25 and 59 years old? There are 19,200 volunteer positions and volunteers in Brighton and Hove who donate 57,600 hours per week! If volunteers were paid, the weekly wage bill would be £520,000 - that is a huge and valuable resource.

If you would like to contribute to the consultation and help develop a good volunteering strategy for our City, visit

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=kUsGslfZfEjR_2faJECQsPZA_3d_3d

Tags: Child Poverty Action Group, earthship

Posted on April 4, 2009 in Environmental and Green Issues, Out and About in Brighton.