Does money grow on trees?

Charlie, aged 15, worked with Made of Money and painted this picture in a workshop. It got us thinking about what we do and why we do what we do. Here is our response to Charlie's question.

Open a newspaper or turn on the television and you’d be forgiven for believing that it does. Conspicuous consumption is everywhere, as is a culture of credit to fund it. An obsession with celebrity glories in the possibilities of wealth and seemingly effortless social mobility. The old mantra, ‘You’ve never had it so good!’ is reframed and echoed by our politicians and broadcasters. And for many people, this is true.

But not for everyone. And this culture simply increases the sense of exclusion for those for whom it is not. 21% of children in Britain still live in poverty. The poverty rate among children of Pakistani and
Bangladeshi origin is three times that high. Between 1997 and 2003 the gap between the richest and the poorest people in Britain had risen by 16% – and it continues to widen.

QSA works in eight boroughs, seven of which are in the top
20 most deprived areas of the UK, with an average of
35.81% of residents drawn from black or minority ethnic
(BME) backgrounds, communities which are most effected
by poverty and social exclusion. All this serves to remind us what we’ve always known: 174 years after the first ‘modern’ poor law, 140 years after Quaker Social Action began making its own modest efforts and sixty years after the advent of the welfare state, poverty
is still an ingrained problem in the east end of London. This could lead us to throw up our hands and give up.

Alternatively, it can teach us that, even if we could grow money on trees, no quantity of it, in itself, could end poverty and social exclusion. If QSA hopes to make a difference to the lives of individuals and the broader climate, then how we work is as important as what we do and how much we spend. We can only do this through dialogue.

QSA works to foster a culture in which people are listened to and what they say is respected and forms the bedrock of our action. Stories about how people came to be in their current position are important to us in evaluating how to best meet their needs, not for weighing up their value. HomeStore is a significant example of universal respect for all involved. If homelessness were simply the result of alcohol abuse, personal recklessness or government mismanagement, as many believe, it would have been dealt with by now. A web of circumstances including relationship breakdown, family conflict, unemployment, poor provision for ex-offenders, lack of drug abuse treatment and many other factors mean that re-housing a person is more than just placing a roof over their head. HomeLink is able to offer a targeted, effective response that recognises that the circumstances required to maintain a tenancy are as individual as those which had earlier lead to its loss.

QSA does not bring any grand plan for the reduction of poverty. It’s a patchwork affair that sees individual needs and tries out ideas, taking forward those that work. Our projects use the skills and experience of clients to achieve their goals, such as Street Cred, which is motivated by individual needs, with each response equipping clients to make use of their existing abilities and passions.

QSA recognises that poverty begins as material want but does not end there. Beyond this, it affects the way people feel about themselves and the reactions they receive in every part of their lives. To be poor is not only to lack money, but a voice and the respectful forums in which that voice can be heard. Because poverty affects people as a whole, Made of Money? works with whole families and whole people and is more than just debt counselling or financial literacy. So this report, built on a structure of dialogue, is not a gimmick. Conversation is at the heart of what we do.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but relationships are formed organically and require nurture, patience and persistence. In our 139th year, we believe that QSA offered something unique in the quality of the relationships we fostered and the interventions that we made. In our 140th year, we hope to see the work that grows from them flourish further still.

Because money doesn't grow on trees we need your help. To contribute to our work financially, please click here.

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Charity Registration No: 1069157 · Company Registration No: 3524063