Christians Against Poverty
Encyclopedia
Christians Against Poverty (CAP) is a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 charitable company
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...

 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 founded in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

 by John Kirkby in 1996. It is a national organisation specialising in debt counselling
Credit counseling
Credit counseling is a process that involves offering education to consumers about how to avoid incurring debts that cannot be repaid through establishing an effective Debt Management Plan and Budget...

 for individuals in financial difficulty, including those in need of bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 or insolvency
Insolvency
Insolvency means the inability to pay one's debts as they fall due. Usually used to refer to a business, insolvency refers to the inability of a company to pay off its debts.Business insolvency is defined in two different ways:...

.

The organisation works through a network of regional offices that work in partnership with a local Christian church. Individuals seeking the assistance of the charity give authority to the charity to negotiate with creditors, and the charity will then organise the individual's finances with the objective of making them debt free within 5 years. The caseworker will create a sustainable personal budget
Personal budget
A personal budget is a finance plan that allocates future personal income towards expenses, savings and debt repayment. Past spending and personal debt are considered when creating a personal budget...

for clients, prioritising basic living needs and offering creditors fair, affordable pro-rata payments as far as this is possible.

On 3 September 2011 Christians Against Poverty chose to leave AdviceUK, an umbrella group representing the interests of thousands of advice workers, after it was judged that praying was ‘incompatible’ with membership.

Recognition

The charity has won a number of awards, including the Charity Times Awards' "Best Charity to Work For" in 2006 and 2007. CAP came top in "the UK's Best Small Company to Work For" in the Sunday Times' Best Companies list on its debut in 2008, and topped the list again in 2009.

Funding

CAP currently receives no government funding, so relies on donations from individuals, churches, charities and trusts. CAP's monthly giving programme is called "Life Changers". CAP also operates a Fair Share scheme, whereby banks and other financial organisations donate to CAP 10% of the value of repayments made to them by CAP clients. These donations are made with no strings attached.

International

CAP has expanded into various other countries, namely Australia in 2001, New Zealand in 2007, and Norway in 2009 (CAP Money only). CAP UK, CAP Australia and CAP New Zealand are each separate and independent charities, but work on the same principles and systems.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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