The Sisters of St. Joseph are pleased to work with the London Food Bank on this new venture, and delighted to have such an amazing Steering Committee to move this project forward. We’re also grateful to both the London Community Foundation and King’s College for their support of this initiative.
With our involvement in this project, the Sisters of St. Joseph are saying that:
- Poverty is human-made. And, if it has been created, it can be undone.
- But such fundamental change only happens when the community works together. We all have our own understandings of the causes and consequences of poverty, and we tend to fall into different political camps around the issue. But we need to learn to talk about poverty in ways that make sense to people no matter where they stand in the political spectrum. We need to get beyond the polarization that generates apathy and negative stereotypes about people living in poverty. We need practical solutions.
- We want to create a context in which we’re learning from the experiences of people who live in poverty so that we’ll know what really makes a difference; a context in which funders, service providers and policy-makers can point to evidence-based solutions. Most important, we want citizens of good will to have the knowledge they need to get involved in creating change.
- Businesses often come to London to test out their products because we’re considered to be so ‘typical.’ We think London should be the testing ground for bigger things than that. Let’s ‘test out’ what it takes to shift attitudes about poverty and to address its root causes. Let’s be the place where people come to learn about what it takes to create real systemic change. And let’s do it with the next generation, some of whom are here today because they’re ready for change.
That’s the hope that the Poverty Research Centre offers. But it’s a hope that will come to full fruition only if Londoners take up the challenge.
Sue Wilson, CSJ
