Engagement with Suffolk County Council 

In May last year, Suffolk County Council launched their Tackling Poverty action plan – read more about this here.  
 
As part of this, the council has created a Tackling Poverty Partnership group.

This is a group made up of representatives from VCSE (Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise) organisations, education providers, religious leaders, health organisations and businesses. The Partnership roles and responsibilities range from the implementation of the Tackling Poverty Action Plan, through support and challenge to the County Council to ensure that the needs of those most affected are met, identification of gaps in support, gathering of intelligence for risks and opportunities, all the way through to identification of new ways of working and sharing of evidence of good practice.

In October our Community Organiser, Saffron Carter became co-chair, so our involvement in the group puts REACH in a key informing and influencing position for the needs of those in our community suffering hardship. We can directly inform and be a part of the councils tackling poverty strategy which aligns with our strategic objectives.

As part of this we have signed up to be part of an Experts by initiative from Health Watch Suffolk – read more about this here.