CEO’s Thoughts (November Newsletter)

29 November 2021

Welcome to our November newsletter.

Don’t the months just fly by, and every day brings a new challenge or opportunity.

With Christmas just around the corner we have been contemplating one of our biggest challenges, and that is how we support the ever-growing ‘Working Poor’ group. These are not your headline grabbing, Sky TV and 40-a-day smokers that the mass media would love us to believe are lining our streets: the working poor are those families who hold down two or three jobs, working every hour they can to support their families; these are people who don’t reach the threshold for benefit support but who are just about be getting by.

I recently used the example of a married couple with two children living in our area working for the NHS. These are the workers who we clapped during ‘Clap for Carers’, who rely on foodbanks and manage their family income to the penny. With the hike in fuel costs and ever-increasing daily expenses, these are people who are only just getting by. With Christmas around the corner we are looking to open up all our projects and make them accessible for all, but my question is how do we do this with no investment in prevention, no funding for this type of work and government insisting that we must level up? Well, all I can say is that here in our county, the social gap is getting bigger and bigger yet Berkshire is ignored as though we don’t have any poverty and we have no need for a levelling up agenda. At Christmas we should just be fair: no more or less, just recognise that people are struggling in our area.

This year I want to give the best Christmas to all our young people and with your help perhaps we can.

Have a very merry Christmas!