DIGNITY. AGENCY. POWER.

Church Action on Poverty works to put gospel values into practice.

Poverty prevents people from exercising dignity, agency, and power over their own lives. Our goal is to grow and support a social movement that can reclaim dignity, agency and power.

All of our work is rooted in those three core values:​

Dignity

For Christians, all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. The United Nations describes poverty as a violation of human dignity.

All of our work is founded on the belief that every human being deserves dignity, to be treated with respect, and a chance to live life in all its fullness.

Agency

Agency is people’s ability and freedom to act, to make a difference in the world – either individually or collectively.

Too often, projects and campaigns seek to tackle poverty without treating the people who experience it as active agents in their own right. But people who struggle against poverty on a daily basis have the deepest understanding of what needs to change, and some of the best ideas for doing so.

Wherever possible, Church Action on Poverty’s work is actively shaped and led by people who have experienced poverty themselves.

Power

People continue to be trapped in poverty because it is sustained by unjust structures and systems. It’s part of the church’s mission to speak out and transform those unjust structures – as the prophets did in the Bible. That means challenging the people who have too much power in our society.

We support people in poverty to speak truth to power and make change.