Anti-Poverty Week (APW) will be held across Australia from the 16th to the 22nd of October 2022. This Anti-Poverty Week we are calling on all our Parliamentarians to commit to halve child poverty by 2030. This means we can meet our international commitments to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and UN Global Goals (Sustainable Development Goals).
The ACT has the highest average weekly earnings in Australia, and yet around one in 10 Canberrans - or 38,000 - live in poverty.
Lack of awareness for the scale of child poverty, greater poverty and the housing and cost of living crises are major contributors to lack of action and change.
Poverty exists. Poverty hurts us all. We can all do something about it.
ACT Anti-Poverty Week Events
APW Launch - CEO Media Conference
Monday 17th October 9.15am-10.15am
ACT Legislative Assembly
AFI Anti Poverty Week Forum
Monday 17 October 12.30 – 2.00 pm
via Zoom
Members of Advocacy for Inclusion, people with disability and allies are invited to Finding home: accessible and affordable housing in Canberra – an AFI Anti Poverty Week Forum.
This forum is being hosted by Advocacy for Inclusion with support from the ACT Council of Social Service and will mark the start of Anti Poverty week highlighting housing accessibility and affordability issues for people with disability struggling to find and maintain suitable housing in our city.
APW Forum
Thursday 20th October 12.15pm-1.30pm
Canberra Museum + Gallery (CMAG)
This year as part of ACT's Anti-Poverty Week, ACTCOSS and CARE Financial (Co-Chairs of ACT APW) are hosting a panel and forum discussing issues of poverty and disadvantage.
The panel will be moderated by ACT Council of Social Service's Head of Policy Dr Gemma Killen and will include expert panelists;
- Member for Canberra, Minister Alicia Payne,
- ANUSA Student Assistance Advisor, Mr Hassan Riaz,
- Director of ANU Children’s Policy Centre, and Poverty & Inequality Research Centre, Professor Sharon Bessell,
- UnionsACT Campaign Organiser, Kasey Tompkins
Canberra Lit in Blue
Telstra Tower: Sunday 16th - Saturday 22nd
Telstra Tower, the Treasury Building and the National Carillon will be blue during the evenings of APW 2022.
The colour blue has been chosen in line with the lighting up of monuments across Australia to symbolise a brighter future of hope particularly for children living in poverty.
APW Art Competition
Oct 21
The APW Art Competition is a youth art competition open to all ACT Youth 18 years and under! Entries are open until Sunday 16th October and the theme of the APW Art Competition is “Including Everyone”. Winners will be decided by a vote during APW and announced on Friday 21st October.
Make a Pledge to Halve Child Poverty
This Anti-Poverty Week we are calling on all our Parliamentarians to commit to halve child poverty by 2030.
Help us urge all Parliamentarians to legislate to halve child poverty by 2030 with measurable targets and actions to achieve this goal.
Sign the pledge, take a photo of you holding it, post it on social media and don’t forget to tag us on Facebook @antipovertyweek, Instagram @anti_poverty_week, and Twitter @AntiPovertyWeek.
Alternatively, send us a copy via [email protected]
#EndChildPoverty
Media
APW is partnering with Region Media to produce a number of feature articles regarding the events of the week, stories from local community about community initiatives to address poverty and the urgency of increasing community housing in Canberra. Keep an eye out on The RiotACT and please share any content to your networks!
Contact
For further information or if you have any questions, please contact [email protected]
This year the 2022 ACT Anti-Poverty Week Committee gratefully received a grant from the ACT Government to support APW activities.