Voluntary and community organisations can now apply for grants of up to £500 to create projects aimed at understanding the impact of child poverty in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Information and data from these projects will feed into the 2025 Director of Public Health Report for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, which looks to shine a light on the issue and to help find solutions.
Groups and organisations that work with babies, children, young people, and their families, can help by delivering engagement activities to capture real experiences of growing up in poverty. These could be anything from drawings, photos, videos, and poetry to sculptures, audio recordings, or comic book strips — whatever participants feel comfortable with.
“We cannot fully understand or address the impact of child poverty unless we involve children, young people, and families with direct experience of living with poverty themselves,” said Dr Eunan O’Neill, interim director of public health for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
“We want to listen to their experiences to understand what it means to grow up in poverty in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.”
Applications are now open and will close at noon on Friday, 16th May. Successful organisations will be notified and receive grant funding from Wednesday, 23rd May.
Organisations will carry out engagement activities with babies, children, and young people in June to gather their lived experiences of poverty, and must then share their findings with Cornwall Council public health by Monday, 30th June. To apply, and for more information, visit Creative Community Engagement Micro Grants | Let’s Talk Cornwall.
