DEEPENING “poverty of relationships and identity” is now a reality within the UK, the Church Urban Fund (CUF) has said in its Impact Report 2025, published last week.
“We’ve seen polarised political debate, a nation that appears to be becoming more divided. We’ve witnessed protests with indignant voices raised in numerous views,” the chief executive of the CUF, the Rt Revd Rob Wickham, writes within the foreword to the report. The CUF was established 40 years ago, after the publication of the Faith within the City report, which called for the Church’s clear commitment and positive response to tackling urban poverty and deprivation.
The Impact Report 2025 uses case studies to concentrate on CUF’s continuing practical work in resourcing churches and community groups to serve a few of what it describes as “essentially the most challenged communities and situations”.
One such case study refers back to the Growing Good sessions on the theme of justice, which inspired St Barnabas’s, Walthamstow, to convert an unused space right into a warm living-room for a lot of community groups, and to advocate for asylum-seekers.
There are actually 2472 subscribers to the Growing Good programme. “God’s justice lifts up the oppressed, welcomes outcasts, transforms communities, speaks truth to power,” the report says.
“It is justice that saves, heals and restores. And as Jesus shows, justice begins with an encounter, where we step beyond our comfort zone to listen to those missed voices, and listen with curiosity and a focus.”
A version of the programme for young people is being developed this 12 months.
Last 12 months, CUF added 104 latest Places of Welcome venues to its existing 925. Its Near Neighbours scheme helped to establish 106 latest partnerships between local organisations, equipped 3089 grass-roots leaders, and mobilised 1000 volunteers, “amplifying the voices of those on the coalface and empowering them to drive change”, the report says.
After the violent riots that broke out in 27 towns and cities in the summertime of 2024, during which police vans were set alight, crowds shouted racial abuse, mosques were targeted, and bricks were thrown at hotels housing asylum-seekers, the CUF organised 4 “Big Conversations”: a series of open discussions between people from across a community.
The report quotes one facilitator of those, Dr Muhammad Khan: “Neighbourhoods are key constructing blocks in community cohesion. They are continuously faced with latest challenges that require continued trust and understanding between people of all types of backgrounds.
“In all 4 Big Conversations, one resounding theme emerged: communities already understand the problems they face and the solutions they need. What they lack is sustained support and resources to show their ideas into lasting change.”
CUF gave £500,000 under the Windrush Day Grant Scheme to charities, community groups, and councils, to enable people to inform their stories, at a median of £16,667 per recipient. One such project, a drama called Forgotten Heroes, told the story of young Caribbean men who volunteered with the British armed forces.
CUF’s Together Network is responding to the challenges faced by the several regions in England. In the north-east and north-west, it lists the challenges because the “rise of Far-Right, food insecurity, community breakdown, absent fathers, domestic violence, inadequate housing”. Its response is to “amplify grassroots voices, recognise God at work, concentrate on relationships not structures, work at a regional level”.
During 2025, funds given to the CUF included 11 legacies totalling £222,118 and donations of £209,724 from 978 regular givers and £27,376 from 58 churches. Fund-raising campaigns produced a complete of £176,549.
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