APW_July Newsletter (pdf)
Welcome to Anti-Poverty Week
For more than 20 years Anti-Poverty Week has campaigned to make sure that all Australians including our children can cover the basics and have a secure roof over their heads. Children can thrive and be healthy when they have what they need to develop well.
Join us for Anti-Poverty Week 15-27 October 2023.
Who Are We?
Our Purpose
Anti-Poverty Week supports the Australian community to have an increased understanding of poverty and to take action collectively to end it. We are a diverse network of individuals and organisations who share this purpose. Since 2002, we have been active each year in the week around the 17th of October, the United Nations Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
Our key message is: Poverty exists. Poverty hurts us all. We can all do something about it. It is one of hope, not despair. In 2023, Anti-Poverty Week will be held from the 15th to 27th of October.
What We Do
Anti-Poverty Week supports the Australian community to have an increased understanding of poverty and to take action collectively to end it.
Since 2002, we’ve been active every year in the week around the 17th of October, the United Nations Day for the Eradication of Poverty. During this week, we encourage all Australians to take action and focus on positive solutions to end poverty. We work with our network of diverse voices and organisations in order to increase awareness of poverty in Australia and globally. At a national and state level we are reaching out to some new audiences who are not already at the forefront of this work including employers and those in rural and regional Australia as well as re-energising our connection with younger Australians.
Each year we choose an evidence-based solution to be a focus and partner with the leading campaign/organisation in that space to take action to end poverty. In Anti-Poverty Week 2022 we called on all our Parliamentarians to legislate to halve child poverty by 2030. In Anti-Poverty Week 2021 we called on governments to unlock poverty for families and children and all affected by pandemic poverty by raising income support above the poverty line and investing in social housing. We have supported the Raise the Rate for Good and Everybody’s Home campaigns each year since 2019.
Click here to Read More…
Supporting the Voice
Anti-Poverty Week accepts the invitation to walk with our First Nations brothers and sisters in seeking a Voice to Parliament enshrined in the Constitution.
We believe we can work together to create a future where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are respected, listened to and have the power to make decisions about their lives. Voting Yes in the referendum is an important step towards a society that respects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture and leads to meaningful improvements in the quality of life
Read Why Anti-Poverty Week Supports the Voice
Share this video ad:History is Calling video ad by the Uluru Dialogue – share with someone close to you: 30 second version, 60 second version
How we can support the Yes campaign:
- Find a local Yes group to connect with
- Join a Walk for Yes event on Sunday 17 September
Add a Yes frame to your profile picture with the Yes23 selfie tool
Taking action to end child poverty in 2023
This year we are excited to continue and extend our campaign to #endchildpoverty.
Due to the Referendum on a First Nations Voice to Parliament being held on Saturday 14 October, Anti-Poverty Week will run over two weeks this year, from 15-27 October.
Our signature images were designed by 8 year old Matilda and 7 year old Amelia, entrants in the Anti-Poverty Week Youth Art competition in Canberra last year.
Download and share our Promotional Kit
We have a full set of six social media tiles to share, optimized for facebook/Instagram, Xwitter, and LinkedIn. Download them here.
We also have versions with space for you to add your own organizational logo available via this dropbox link.
Fast Facts and explainers
We have updated our popular Fast Facts sheets on Poverty in Australia and Child and Family Poverty
See our updated webpage on Join our call to end child poverty and our new explainer – Why Poverty Diminishes Children’s Lives
Petition for an Australian child poverty reduction act
Legislation to enshrine a commitment to end child poverty with measurable targets and actions is the best way to #EndChildPoverty.
This call to action is being coordinated by Anti-Poverty Week partner organization in WA The Valuing Children Initiative
Find out more here and sign the petition
Pens Against Poverty – student writing
Pens Against Poverty is bigger than ever this year – with the theme Voices for Change.
Coordinated by Anglicare this unique writing competition is open for school students in Years 3-10, across Australia. Resources are available for teachers and students on the Pens Against Poverty website.
Enter now until 15 September
Disturbing new homelessness data
A new report produced by Homelessness Australia released in Homelessness Week Overstretched and overwhelmed: the strain on homelessness services Report, 4/8/23 shows:
- Between April 2020 and March 2023 rents rose by 40 per cent across Australia and by early 2023 vacancy rates were at a record 1 percent low. SQM research, National Weekly Rents data and National Residential Vacancy Rates.
- The number of people using a homelessness service increased by 7.5 per cent between December 2022 and March 2023. Three in four people using homelessness services in March 2023 were women or children. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Specialist Homelessness Services: monthly data, May 2023.
Homelessness services are unable to meet surging demand for homelessness support and in 2021-22 turned away nearly 72,000 people. Of those turned away, 80% were women and children, and 31% were under 18. AIHW, Specialist homelessness services annual report 2021–22, December 2022.
