QSA director Judith Moran was invited to a private reception in Downing Street by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) on May 22nd, just as the general election announcement was made. In 2011, QSA won an award for our Made of Money project from the CSJ. This year marks 20 years of the CSJ awards that honour the best poverty-fighting charities and social enterprises in the country.
Judith notes the CSJ's long-standing interest in families and Made of Money. "In Made of Money they saw an approach to financial education which was kind, fun, not intended to blame or shame, but to gently support. They also recognised that it can be a preventative tool – if we can support families teetering near the poverty line to make even small savings to their household expenditure, this might provide a much needed level of stability.
Made of Money still thrives, though much has changed about the way we work now. The cost of living crisis has catapulted far more households into negative budgets, where their outgoings exceed their income, and all of the canny budgeting in the world doesn’t solve this problem. The world of personal finance has changed too, beyond recognition, as we shift to an increasingly cashless society.
At Made of Money we’ve been more targeted in our work, such as helping carers identify scams, or supporting young people in care to be better equipped to understand how to manage money before they need to do this for themselves."
The CSJ Foundation has just launched a report entitled 'Underfunded and Overlooked -- the perilous state of Britain's grassroots charities'. It highlights how small charities with proven track records and positive impact on local communities remain under-resourced in the fight against poverty.
Judith describes the energy and optimism among grassroots charities despite these challenges: "We arrived on the steps on Number 10 less than an hour after the Prime Minister announced the election. One of the speakers at the event remarked that it was a lovely, albeit accidental, sign, that the first people into the building after the announcement were from grassroots UK charities! It was a pleasure to spend time with others like QSA, seeing need expanding as funding shrinks, but what stood out was the tenacity and optimism in the room, a sense that we were doing such important work, and were fully determined to continue it."
Read more about the CSJ reception for grassroots charities here.