Exploring the opportunities, challenges and practical implications of the new Crisis and Resilience Fund for local areas.
This webinar is hosted by the Understanding Strengths-Based Prevention (USP) team, formerly known as the MoVE or ESA team, at the Universities of Hull and Sheffield. It brings the team's research on prevention into the emerging national conversation about the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), creating an opportunity to connect research evidence with learning from those shaping and implementing the Fund nationally and locally.
The webinar will launch the USP team's new comparative report: From Crisis Relief to Crisis Resilience. This report examines how two local authorities and their voluntary sector partners sought to move beyond short-term crisis relief towards more collaborative, relational and preventative approaches to tackling the cost-of-living crisis and poverty more broadly. The research looks in particular at local use of the Household Support Fund (HSF) and the extent to which short-term crisis funding could be connected to wider advice, support and preventative practice.
The webinar will use these findings as a starting point for a wider discussion about what effective crisis support could look like under the new CRF. We will explore the conditions that help turn short-term assistance into more joined-up, relational and preventative support, and bring together a panel of local authorities putting these principles into practice in different and innovative ways.
Confirmed panelists are:
- Jonathan Downs, Oldham Borough Council
- Paul Cannon, Nottinghamshire County Council
- Abby Hauver from Hackney Borough Council
The webinar will be joined by Sabine Goodwin from the CRF Alliance and the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) who will share a national perspective on the CRF.
Key questions that will be considered are:
- What are areas doing differently under the CRF compared with the HSF? What does this transition look like?
- What are the connecting points between crisis and building longer-term 'resilience'?
- How do we capture and evidence 'resilience' effectively?
The session will contribute to the wider learning taking place around CRF implementation, while bringing a particular focus on prevention, local systems and how change and impact can be understood and evidenced.