Contents
- Action for Children
- Active8
- Bee Team
- Cirk Hes
- Home-Start Kernow
- Imagine Outdoors Together
- intoBodmin
- Kernow Active
- Kernow Youth
- National Literacy Trust
- Newquay Orchard
- RJ Working
- St Columb Major Youth Club
- The Farming Mother
- Transformation CPR
- Trelya
- Truro Nourish Hub
- Whole Again Communities
- WILD
- Young People Cornwall
- Health and Happiness Artwork
- A call to action
We can’t understand or fix child poverty without listening to babies, children, and young people who have lived through it. That’s why their ideas and stories were a big part of the 2025 Director of Public Health Report.
In April 2025, we asked community groups in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to help us understand how child poverty affects people. We gave money to 24 groups so they could run creative projects about child poverty. These groups worked with babies, children and young people all over the county. They used art, collage, poetry, and other creative ways for babies, children and young people to share their feelings and about growing up in poverty.
We looked for the common themes in the experiences they shared. These themes and some of the creative works are in the 2025 Director of Public Health Report. You can see all the projects in our online gallery.
Here are some of the groups and what they did:
Action for Children
Action for Children Cornwall (Kernow Connect) support young people aged 11–19 across Cornwall.
They worked with youth groups in Torpoint and Camborne. In Torpoint, young people made art journals and postcards to show their dreams and worries. In Camborne, they made comic strips to say how poverty affects them.
View the Action for Children artwork
Active8
Active8 helps young people aged 14–30 with physical disabilities.
They made art and cooked food together to talk about what poverty is like for them. Their thoughts were put into a report.
Bee Team
Bee Team is an inclusive social club in Bude for people with neurodiversity, learning disabilities and physical disabilities. They met with families in Bude to listen and learn. They made a report with stories, artwork, and photos.
Cirk Hes
Cirk Hes aims to bring the benefits of Circus Arts and Physical Theatre to those who need it most. Young people in Helston used circus skills and art to show what poverty is like for them. The project ended with a digital exhibition at the Cirk Hes venue, where the group’s voices and artwork were displayed.
View photos from the Cirk Hes project
Home-Start Kernow
Home-Start Kernow provides peer support to families. Most of their work is with families with children under five. They also support those with neurodivergent children and young people up to age 19. They engaged families who attended their monthly Stay and Play group at Polruan House. Families shared pictures and stories about how poverty affects them. Their stories and photos were compiled into a written report.
Read the report from Home-Start Kernow
Imagine Outdoors Together CIC
Imagine Outdoors Together CIC is passionate about creating fun, empowering learning experiences in the natural environment. Families in Newquay wrote their thoughts about poverty on a big chalkboard and talked together. Important quotes were captured.
View the work from Imagine Outdoors Together
intoBodmin
intoBodmin is a community interest company based in Bodmin. They work to ensure fair access to inspiring cultural activities for all. This group made a fun chatbot called ‘Bodmin BanterBot’ on WhatsApp. Young people used it to talk about poverty, safety, and other problems. This approach offered an accessible alternative to traditional survey tools. It reduced formality and increasing comfort for young people aged 13–24. It also encouraged open and honest reflections.
Kernow Active
Kernow Active aim to inspire inclusive activity. They provide a range of physical activity opportunities for children and their families. In Redruth and Camborne, children tried Para-Olympic sports alongside a large-scale drawing and discussion activity. The activity focused on their experiences of poverty. The insights gathered were compiled into a written report.
Kernow Youth
Kernow Youth provides youth services for children and young people aged 0–25 living in the PL24 area. Youth workers facilitated safe spaces for group discussions within existing weekly community groups. Young people shared their experiences of living in poverty in the local area. These insights were compiled into a written report.
National Literacy Trust
The National Literacy Trust empowers people with the literacy skills they need to succeed in life. In Camborne and Redruth, families took part in creative collaging activities. They also had informal conversations about the challenges they face. These conversations were turned into a poem, capturing babies’ and children’s experiences of poverty in the local area.
View the work from the National Literacy Trust
Read the poem from the National Literacy Trust
Newquay Orchard
Newquay Orchard offers a wide range of opportunities inspired by nature. They held two workshops where young people explored the reality of child poverty in Cornwall. From this they produced a zine which included a mix of voices and concerns. The zine also showcased their hope for change and action.
RJ Working
RJ Working is a children and young people’s charity. They use a restorative practice model to reduce inequalities and tackle injustice. They worked with children and young people from schools across Redruth and the Isles of Scilly. They explored themes of unfairness, poverty, and injustice. They created puppets and produced two short films to show their feelings about poverty.
St Columb Major Youth Club
St Columb Major Youth Club is a grassroots organisation supporting over 240 young people aged 8–18. Across four sessions young people explored the question: “What’s it like to grow up here?”. They reflected on growing up in a place affected by rural isolation, limited transport, low-income households, and housing insecurity. Their responses were captured through a variety of creative mediums and collected together in a video. They will also be used in a mural to be displayed at the youth club.
View the work by St Columb Major Youth Club
The Farming Mother CIC
The Farming Mother CIC supports children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families. Through their “Voices for Change” project, families cooked, gardened, and made art together while sharing their stories about poverty. These insights were compiled into a written report.
View the work by The Farming Mother CIC
Read the The Farming Mother CIC report
Transformation CPR
Transformation CPR held events for families in Camborne, Pool, and Redruth. In collaboration with The Penlee Family Project and a local artist, they hosted a creative event. Parents and carers shared their experiences of poverty through a survey and informal conversations. Their stories were turned into a powerful piece of artwork. Transformation CPR also worked with school-age children and young people. The insights were compiled into two written reports.
Read the Transformation CPR report
View the Transformation CPR artwork
Trelya
Trelya work with communities in West Cornwall to improve health and wellbeing and enable positive change. They talked with parents and young people about food poverty. Through breadmaking and collaging activities, participants shared reflections on their lived experiences of poverty. These were captured in a series of collages and a written report.
View the work from TrelyaWatch a video from Trelya
Read the first report from Trelya Read the second report from Trelya
Truro Nourish Hub CIC
Truro Nourish Hub CIC work to improve the health, wellbeing, and life opportunities of children and families in Truro. Through their “Voices of Resilience” project, they engaged with families impacted by poverty. They worked in collaboration with other local organisations across Cornwall. Using a variety of creative formats, they talked with families about their experience of poverty. These insights were compiled into a written report.
Read the Truro Nourish Hub report
Whole Again Communities (WAC)
Whole Again Communities (WAC) is based in Penzance. They offer a safe, welcoming space where people can access support to improve their mental and physical wellbeing. In June 2025, WAC conducted a community survey titled “Raising Children in Cornwall: What’s Helping, What’s Missing?” They also conducted interviews with two single-parent families and a local teenager. The findings were presented in a written report.
Read the Whole Again Communities (WAC) report
WILD
WILD works with young parents and their babies across Cornwall. They aim to build a healthy, happy start to family life. WILD carried out Newborn Baby Observations, which is designed to offer insight into the experiences of very young babies. They also recorded weekly observations for toddlers attending their regular groups. These observations were used to written records, bringing the experiences of babies and toddlers to life. They also ran three focus groups across West, Mid and East Cornwall. These groups provided insights into the realities of being a young parent on a low income.
Young People Cornwall
Young People Cornwall is a charity that supports young people all over Cornwall. They run a number of youth groups in Cornwall and five of these groups took part in this work. Each group chose different creative activities to spark conversations about poverty. Their unique contributions are showcased here.
Read the Young People Cornwall - St Agnes Parish Youth Project report
View the work from Young People Cornwall - The House (St Austell)
View the work from Young People Cornwall - St Enoder Youth ClubView the work from Young People Cornwall - ZEBs Truro
Health and Happiness Artwork
Children and young people in schools and youth groups were invited to draw or describe what ‘health and happiness’ means to them. This activity was not designed to document children’s direct experiences of poverty. Instead, it aimed to capture what children in CIOS feel they need to be able thrive and has helped to shape our recommendations for action.
View the Health and Happiness Artwork
A call to action
To complete the Director of Public Health Annual Report 2025, we brought together the key themes shared across the engagement activities into an open letter. This letter reflects the voices of babies, children, and young people across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. They describe what it’s like to grow up in poverty, how it affects their lives, and the changes they want to see. The letter is a call to action, asking for meaningful steps to reduce poverty and its impact in their communities.
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