Voluntary and community organisations can now apply for grants of up to £500 to create projects aimed at understanding the impact of child poverty in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Information and data from these projects will feed into the 2025 Director of Public Health Report for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly which looks to shine a light on the issue and help find solutions.
Groups and organisations that work with babies, children, young people and their families, can help by delivering engagement activities to capture real experiences of growing up in poverty.
These could be anything from drawings, photos, videos and poetry to sculptures, audio recordings or comic book strips – whatever participants feel comfortable with.
Dr Eunan O’Neill, Interim Director of Public Health for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said:
“We cannot fully understand or address the impact of child poverty unless we involve children, young people and families with direct experience of living with poverty themselves. We want to listen to their experiences to understand what it means to grow up in poverty in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
“Responses from these community projects will be featured in the 2025 Director of Public Health Report, which this year will be a joint report with the directors of children’s services at both Cornwall Council and Council of the Isles of Scilly.
“This work will help leaders make decisions about health and wellbeing priorities and the report to be a ‘call to action’ that will represent the voices of babies, children and young people across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.”
Organisations can focus their engagement on any of the following life stages: babies, pre-school aged children, school-aged children, or young people aged 16-24 years. The council’s Public Health team is particularly interested in exploring the following areas:
Babies:
- Food insecurity, the cost of infant formula, and infant feeding
- Parent-infant relationships and infant mental health
- Infant safety (e.g. safer sleep and unintended injuries)
- Access to services (e.g. health, play, education, social connection)
- Temporary accommodation and out of routine sleeping
Preschool children:
- School readiness and child development
- Home learning environments
- Access to quality childcare
- Damp and mould in homes
School-age children:
- The cost of the school day
- Attainment and attendance
- Belonging and inclusion
- Overcrowded / temporary accommodation
Young people:
- Employment (employability, quality of employment, age-related minimum wage etc.)
- Risk of exploitation
- Supported accommodation
Applications open on Wednesday April 23 and will close at midday on Friday, May 16. Successful organisations will be notified and receive grant funding from Wednesday, May 23.
Organisations will carry out engagement activities with babies, children, and young people in June to gather their lived experiences of poverty and must then share their findings with Cornwall Council Public Health by Monday June 30.
To apply, and for more information, visit Let's Talk Cornwall
Press release issued on April 23, 2025.