ChallengeLDN: Poverty Prevention Challenge
What is the challenge?
The effects of poverty are far reaching. The stigma around the word, the uncertainty it creates and the physical and mental toll it takes on Londoners is something the Mayor of London is working to tackle. Alongside his Fuel Poverty Partnership and calls to tackle the cost-of-living crises, the Mayor is determined to turn the tide against those plunging into poverty. There are many organisations fighting against poverty but few who are working on proactive solutions for those on the cusp.
City Hall launched Challenge LDN in partnership with Barnet Council to invite innovations to help Londoners who, unless creatively supported, would be adding additional pressure on the services and support focussed to support those most in need. An open call was launched in September 2022 to find innovative solutions that mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, empower people at risk, and improve the public sector’s proactive and early interventions to identify and support people at risk of falling into financial hardship.
Eight innovators were selected to work closely with Barnet Council to shape their solutions. Find out who they were and what they were doing.
What does Phase 2 involve?
Seven innovations have been selected as winners of the Poverty Prevention Challenge. Each will receive up to £50,000 to scale up their prototypes to support Londoners at risk of falling into financial hardship.
Innovations include:
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Using cutting edge AI technology to help families at risk of falling into food poverty maximise their food budget, by creating personalised meal plans using the cheapest ingredients from the user’s favourite supermarket.
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Supporting voluntary organisations who help migrant and at-risk communities who cannot access mainstream services with tailored health and wellbeing support.
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Using AI-powered digital tools to help overwhelmed non-profit organisations help refugees integrate successfully into society by providing language and digital literacy support.
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Easy-to-navigate digital tools to help Londoners struggling to pay their bills to manage their finances and access services and resources most suited to their individual needs.
Find out what each will be working on below.
CAD-HR provides free legal services to residents and free management and admin services to voluntary organisations across south east London.
The Centre enables these communities to be financially inclusive, overcome health inequalities, build resilience and prosperity through business and entrepreneurial schemes, training programmes, apprenticeships, and employment support services.
Their work focuses on migrant and deprived communities who for a range of reasons cannot access mainstream services, but face health, social, and financial inequalities and exclusions, and have multiple challenges and vulnerabilities.
MatchingMind’s award-winning matchmaking platform makes sure that people get support that fits, based on their lived experiences. It’s a psychologically-informed approach that is designed with ethnic minority communities in mind.
Their peer support platform is already used by organisations and 1,200+ individuals with positive impact. MatchingMind is building out their platform to support young adults and people aged 50+, where economic inactivity has risen by a third since 2019.
Mealia is the first AI Grocery Assistant designed to help family households at risk of food insecurity to maximise their food budget. Feeding a family is a complex process, especially when money is tight - and research shows that one in five family households in the UK are at risk of food insecurity.
Mealia aims to address this challenge by simplifying the decision-making process when buying food, making it cost-effective, healthier, and less wasteful.
SiBot (Social Impact Bot) from Mendee.Digital supports the refugee population in London, which stands at over 130,000 individuals, with approximately 70% at risk of ending up in poverty. Refugees often struggle with service accessibility due to language barriers and digital exclusion.
SiBot helps non-profit organisations that help refugees, enabling them to provide more efficient and fast support using AI-powered digital tools. In doing so, they can make sure that these vulnerable groups receive the necessary support and resources, improving their chances of integrating successfully into society, and reducing their risk of poverty.
Mortar's Rent Response is a tenancy sustainment tool, designed to support renters in or at risk of rent arrears. It protects tenancies at risk of landlords pursuing possession and protects renters from needing high-cost debt to afford their rent. This reduces financial pressure and anxiety, and creates vital time, resources and touchpoints for advisors to alleviate overall debt and protect tenancies from default.
Designed for both private and public rental sector tenants and landlords, the tool provides a simple method for implementing a payment schedule, improving the capacity and capability of collection officers and money advice services to deliver more effective support to more renters.
SuperFi helps the 45% of UK adults who are struggling to pay their bills and credit commitments due to the rising cost of living - those who are more likely to live in cities (like London), be younger (18-45) and earn below average incomes. SuperFi helps users view and manage all their finances (including bills and debts) in one place for the first time.
The app analyses financial and personal circumstances to help users understand and access the most suitable tools or services for their specific needs. This includes debt repayment strategies, bill management, debt consolidation and specialist debt advice.
Plinth allows charities to share their information with councils, giving councils a broader reach into their area, and letting charities provide more effective support for the people they work with. Time to Spare matches cohorts supported by charities to council lists to show which organisations are most effectively reaching target groups.
The platform helps provide better referral pathways so charities can share information about who might be eligible for council support. It also evaluates the success of these interventions by measuring longitudinal outcomes so that charities have a deeper and wider reach into local communities.