The European Commission and European Parliament have designated 2010 as the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. One of the key aims of the European Year in 2010 is to raise public awareness of the importance of combating poverty and social exclusion for personal, social and economic development.

There are four key priorities for the year:

• recognition of the fundamental rights of people in a situation of poverty and social exclusion to live in dignity and to play a full part in society
• shared responsibility and participation through increased public ownership of social inclusion policies and actions
• promotion of a more cohesive society through sustainable development, solidarity and policy coherence
• reiteration of the strong commitment of the European Union and member states against poverty and promoting this commitment at all levels of governance.

The UK Government is supporting activities that contribute to one or more of the following objectives:

1. Raise awareness of the causes, prevalence and consequences of poverty and social exclusion, and of UK and European strategies and policies that aim to tackle these issues.
2. Promote and facilitate the engagement and participation of a broad range of actors who have a role to play in developing and delivering solutions to tackle poverty and social exclusion, including business and trade unions, voluntary and community organisations, social enterprises, people experiencing poverty, and the organisations that represent them at a local, regional and national level.
3. Ensure a lasting legacy from the Year, including the identification and sharing of good practice and knowledge, and the development of effective structures that facilitate ongoing dialogue between relevant actors.

The Poverty Alliance wants to make sure that during the course of the European Year as many activities as possible take place in Scotland that will help raise the profile of poverty issues, will involve people with experience of exclusion and will leave a lasting legacy. They also want to be able to share with other organisations, including anti-poverty groups across Europe through the European Anti-Poverty Network, the kinds of events and actions that are being taken to address poverty. These actions can include seminars, workshops, conferences, new publications, demonstrations.

If you want to help publicise the work you are already doing then please complete and return a form from the Poverty Alliance Website. They will put all the events on their website and will include updates in enews, and will highlight them to the members of the Network across Europe.