Author Archives: Phil Haggis

1000th member of Job Club in Pollokshaws

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THERE is a new hope for jobseekers in Glasgow.

With continued pressure on services in the city, one church has stepped forward and already helped 1,000 people in their journey towards finding work.
Pollokshaws Methodist Church partnered with award-winning charity Christians Against Poverty four years ago to open a job club with almost a quarter finding work as a result.

CAP Job Club Manager Phil Haggis said: “For a job club to have such a great success rate is very rare, particularly in the current climate of unemployment.
“We know Job Centre Pluses are under enormous pressure across the country, which is why we have partnered with them and see most of our members being referred by them to us.“The beauty of local churches is that they are a great resource in the community and by using the fantastic materials created by Christians Against Poverty we are seeing all our members graduating with a renewed confidence and fervor to put themselves forward forjobs.”

Pollokshaws Job Club’s 1000th member Craig Broadley was recently presented with a framed certificate to mark this historic landmark and members shared a celebration chocolate cake with 1000 candles.
The job club was also recently visited by the Vice-President of the Methodist Conference Jill Baker, who said: “We were very impressed with the work which we saw at Pollokshaws Job Club, which is living out the good news of Jesus in real, practical ways.

“The emphasis on community was of particular importance, treating people as individuals but also as part of society and working towards building the sort of communities where everyone is valued and supported.”
Pollokshaws Job Club is one of 163 job clubs across the UK run in partnership with Christians Against Poverty. To book into the 8-week course visit capuk.org and type in your postcode to find your nearest one.

Christians Against Poverty is determined to reduce hardship in the UK, through the local Church. It does this through 576 poverty fighting services, including 306 Debt Centres, 163 Job Clubs, 71 Release Groups and 36 Life Skills courses, helping people develop basic financial and practical skills.

All the services are given freely regardless of age, gender, faith or background.

  • CAP works to stop interest and charges (successful in 90% of cases)
  • The average person goes debt free with CAP is 21 months
  • In CAP’s 20th year, the charity expects to help 20,000 people
  • The most recent CAP Client Report published in June, found that prior to working with CAP, 78% of clients with children had been unable to feed or clothe them. In addition the report also found that prior to working with CAP 65% of clients skipped meals due to debt and 36% had considered, or attempted, suicide (rising to 40% in Wales).

1000 Members

Enough – Our responsibility to meet families’ needs

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enough

The Joint Public Issues Team, representing many church bodies in the UK, including the Methodist Church, has published a report challenging the premise that the Welfare Reform and Work Bill will incentivise those on benefits to improve their life chances by finding (more) work. Instead, it points out that a large number of families with children will lose a lot of money each year – up to £3000 – and that research suggests that this will result in few families finding extra work; rather, the life chances of the children will be diminished because their families will be attempting to cope with living on not enough money.

“As Christians we believe all are made in God’s image and should have the opportunity to realise the potential God has placed within them. We are asking that the welfare state holds to its founding principles, and seeks to provide enough for a basic standard of living, so that every family and every child can survive and thrive.”

“We do not believe that we should ever deliberately deprive a person, a family, a child of enough to survive, to thrive or to fulfil their God-given potential.”

 Suggested Action

If you are moved by this issue, write to your MP. A template is available at http://www.jointpublicissues.org.uk/enough/.