Poverty in Bolton and across the UK is getting worse.
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Do you really know what it feels like to be hungry?
This week the Genuine Futures lived experience team Sam Smith and Darryl Kennedy witnessed first-hand the extreme poverty in Sam’s hometown of Bolton, the streets that he was born and grew up in.
We cannot go on like this, it’s an absolute outrage and travesty. Today 4.3 million children are being failed. It is an outrage that 100,000 more children are in poverty – they are being forgotten.
These shocking figures should be an urgent wake up call to all of us, especially the UK Government: we cannot go on like this.
There is no reason why children should be going without food, heating, toys, or beds.
Families need an adequate social security system that keeps children out of poverty, and provides them with a basic level of safety and security.
Hungry Young children hanging around the Willows Community Centre in the heart of Bolton, waiting for the centre to be opened so that the young children can be handed their food parcels, it was an eye watering moment to see that nothing much has changed since Sam was just a young boy living on these streets- in fact it’s worse now than ever before.
Poverty is associated with criminal activity.
Both Sam and Darryl have lived life experience of living a life of hardship, hopelessness and poverty, and so fully understand the challenges that today’s children and young people face. Darryl’s life has been marked by a remarkable transformation from a troubled past to a dedicated advocate for crime prevention and community well-being. Born and raised in Manchester in the 1960s, Darryl’s story took a different path from the age of 9 when his father involved him in domestic burglary. Darryl’s dedication to turning his life around led him to engage in various crime prevention initiatives within communities across the UK. He recognized the importance of helping others avoid the mistakes he had made.
Growing up, Sam experienced abuse, being in care, homelessness, prison and a challenging education system. Despite this, he grew his first business from the boot of a car into a thriving, successful domestic and commercial cleaning company and now dedicates his life to helping young people to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set and to live a life free from crime. Sam said: “if you can change one life that one life changed will have a ripple effect. We need to believe in young people and provide them with the opportunities we never had growing up. You cannot change everybody but you can change somebody and that’s what matters”.
“Poverty is associated with criminal activity, and people who grow up in poor circumstances are far more likely to be involved in crime” said Darryl. Deprived areas tend to have higher crime rates, and this suggests that poverty can lead to crime. While it is difficult to ascertain whether poverty makes someone more likely to commit a crime, data show it does make a person more susceptible to being arrested and more likely to be charged with a harsher crime and to receive a longer sentence.
We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all those working on the frontline of children’s services across Bolton, who work tirelessly to ensure our most deprived children & families are provided with their basic needs.
One young family we spoke to told us; “it’s a life saver, and I’m so very grateful to Bolton at Home for helping me and my family in these hard times.”
It’s time to step forward and make positive difference to our children young people NOW!
Stronger Together!
Collaboration is the key. www.genuinefutures.co.uk