Crisis Welfare Network
Join the Crisis Welfare Network
If you are interested in joining the Crisis Welfare Network, please complete and return the Crisis Welfare Network application form to Tom Say at thomas.say@crisis.org.uk or Crisis, 66 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LT.
Membership is free!
Project aims
The project will specifically support smaller and specialist organisations who work with vulnerable people, with an aim to:
- Create a network of approximately 150 organisations nationally who have an interest in the government's welfare reform proposals;
- To ‘de-mystify' the welfare reform complexities, and particularly in relation to the benefits system;
- Influence the Work Programme and ESF funded contract delivery, to ensure that smaller and specialist organisations have a role in supporting the ‘hardest to help';
- Broker relationships between DWP prime contractors and members of the network. These introductions may lead to Work Programme or ESF funded relationships, or the introduction of useful client referral mechanisms;
- Create a fully ‘searchable' online resource library, providing a tool for sharing relevant evidence, and provide access to network members and other organisations to use for planning, bidding and influencing;
- Create a client reference group to gather the views and experience of service users and ex-service users, to provide a vital ‘reality check' on government policy;
- Hold regular seminars and forums for network members, with an aim of constructing a joint, unified response to future DWP and ESF welfare reform consultation processes;
- Utilise the expertise of existing Crisis partnerships, to support engagement with organisations and disadvantaged people, to influence policy and practice; for example - Homeless Link, the Employment Related Services Association, the London Voluntary Sector Training Consortium, the Third Sector European Network and Race on the Agenda.
Background
With match funding from the European Social Fund's Technical Assistance programme, the Crisis Welfare Network (formerly the WILLOW Project) delivers a programme of activity to influence the government's welfare reform agenda.
The Crisis Welfare Network gives a voice to those small or specialist organisations working hard to support people managing poverty, disadvantage and homelessness. These organisations have the potential to make a vital contribution to the Government's welfare reform plans, but are often excluded from the reform process as a consequence of their size or limited resources.
The Coalition Government's Work Programme is currently being implemented. The Crisis Welfare Network will be keeping a close eye on these developments, to ensure that future programmes reflect the particular needs of the homeless population. The delivery of welfare to work programmes must be tailored to suit each individuals need, and be further supported by holistic wrap-around support from other services.
Despite proposals for greater focus and flexibility within the system, too many vulnerable individuals currently receive inappropriate or inadequate support, or are referred to employment or benefits advisors who lack a basic understanding of their needs and aspirations, or the skills to address them. Even a relatively small success for the Crisis Welfare Network, resulting in improved policy or a delivery contract for a specialist provider, could result in many disadvantaged people gaining employment at a wage that is sustainable in the longer term, offering dignity and a life free of poverty.
The Crisis Welfare Network Library
An online library resource containing documents relevant to the Crisis Welfare Network is currently available.
