Tackling Poverty Action Plan

Our flagship Supporting People Programme spends some £136 millioneach year helping the most vulnerable in Wales, providing essentialsupport to around 50,000 people who find themselves in very difficultpersonal circumstances, enabling them to find or keep their homes.There is evidence that higher incidence and fear of crime in deprivedareas has a negative impact on communities. We are funding anadditional 500 Community Support Officers) in Wales to work in ourmost deprived communities, including in particular Communities Firstareas, to increase community safety and to reduce crime and the fearof crime. The Support Officers will be highly visible in theircommunities, engaging with people, providing reassurance andtackling anti-social behaviour.The Welsh Government also supports programmes to reduce substanceabuse, youth offending and reoffending, Violence against Women andDomestic Abuse.Living in an already deprived area or community can often compoundissues associated with poverty and residents of deprived areas canexperience higher levels of anti-social behaviour. We have providedover £15 million towards improving local environmental quality underthe Tidy Towns initiative. With a commitment to a further £10 millionuntil 2015. Tidy Towns projects have made improvements to the localenvironment, helping our communities become more resilient, with abetter quality of life and a greater sense of well being. Tidy Towns hasenabled Keep Wales Tidy to engage with 15,177 volunteers throughoutWales in April 2011 to March 2012, assisting them to take pride andownership of their local area through undertaking 10,703 environmentalimprovement projects which have contributed to lasting improvementsin their community.What we will do in additionAdvice and support servicesWithin the Strategic Equality Plan we committed to strengthen advice,information and advocacy services to help people with protectedcharacteristics understand and exercise their rights and make informedchoices. In response to this, and in the light of changes to the welfaresystem and Legal Aid, we will review our support for advisory services,including housing, drawing together programmes from across theWelsh Government. Our aim will be to develop a stronger network ofservices which is capable of providing people with support on allaspects of financial and housing related need. We will work in tandemwith the third and statutory sector on this.22