Painting the picture of poverty in York

CAP is partnering with the Gather Movement and One Voice York, the church unity group across the city, on an ambitious ten-year project – No One Left Behind – working together towards a poverty-free York. As part of this project, we held a leaders’ summit on Thursday 6 November, bringing together church and civic leaders across the city to see what could happen if we work together to end UK poverty.

We started the day with a keynote address from Rachel Maskell, the Member of Parliament for York. She looked at the history of York and the situation we face today, inspiring a vision for change if we all play our part. 

Next, Paul Hildreth, UK and international advisor on cities, regions and local economies, shared the findings from the Place Review conducted as part of the No One Left Behind project. This review takes a deep dive into the history of York and provides explanations for why things are they way they are. Through this review, it revealed that the work of the anti-poverty pioneer, Siborn Rowntree, has shaped the way that York looks at poverty.

However, over the course of time, the city had missed the breadth of his understanding of poverty and focused on one aspect – the definition of poverty – which has actually held the city back from addressing the wider aspects of poverty at play. Paul encouraged all stakeholders to take a wider view than purely material poverty, and to consider relational poverty and a more systemic approach.

A part of the day that piqued much interest was the presentation on the initial findings from the city-wide church mapping. This aspect of the No One Left Behind project seeks to map all current church activities in four key areas: family support, food, mental health and financial support. It was so encouraging to hear what is already happening and what a significant contribution the Church is making in people’s lives at their time of vulnerability and need.

Then, as Head of Church and Community Transformation at CAP, I had the privilege of leading the summit in a session on taking a holistic view of poverty. We started by looking at how Jesus viewed people in their time of need, using the encounter he had with the woman who had been bleeding for years as a key example. 

We asked two simple questions: ​‘What was broken?’ and ​‘What did Jesus restore?’ In this short encounter, we discovered how much had been taken from the woman due to her condition, but amazingly how much Jesus restored, treating her as a whole person, bringing restoration to her identity, social standing, physical and mental health, and her financial situation. Her whole life was transformed from that encounter. 

This inspired us as churches to reflect on how we view the people in challenging situations around us, and how often we are quick to want to help out of compassion and meet the visible need, but how there is so much more that God wants us to restore. The church leaders were challenged and identified the next practical steps they could take to look at things differently. One of these was for churches to start Church and Community Transformation with CAP to help reflect on this more deeply and respond in ways that will bring lasting hope and restoration in the community.

I came away from the day invigorated for what is possible in York due to the church unity and motivation to make a difference. This movement of passionate people wanting to work towards a poverty free York, No One Left Behind, will see amazing things happening, I am sure. 

*Statistic taken from a 2020/21 study by the End Child Poverty Coalition.
** Statistic: taken from English Indices of deprivation 2025.
*** Statistic: taken from a report by the York Health and Wellbeing board 2023.