About Anti-Poverty Week

Anti-Poverty Week is a week where all Australians are encouraged to organise or take part in an activity aiming to highlight or overcome issues of poverty and hardship here in Australia or overseas. It was established in Australia as an expansion of the UN's annual International Anti-Poverty Day on October 17. In 2018 Anti Poverty Week will be held from the 14th to the 20th of October.

Some activities are organised by welfare and health organisations, religious groups, community organisations, schools and youth groups. Many other types of organisation also arrange activities, including government departments, local councils, business organisations, universities and sporting and cultural groups. You can read a summary of Anti-Poverty Week 2017 here.

Facilitating Group

Anti-Poverty Week is overseen by Facilitating Groups at the national and state/territory level. They include representatives from major organisations and social welfare services which are actively involved in efforts to reduce poverty and hardship in Australia and overseas. The current Co-Chairs of the Facilitating Groups are shown below. The National Coordinator is Jill Lang and the National Liaison Officer is Yumi Bhattarai.

National and State Chairs

The national and state co-chairs are:

National	Australian Capital Territory	New South Wales
Eileen Baldry (Co-Chair) Deputy Vice Chancellor Inclusion and Diversity, UNSW Ian Carter (Co-Chair) CEO, Anglicare WA	Matt Davies (Co-Chair) CEO, Red Cross ACT	Jack de Groot (Co-Chair) CEO, St Vincent de Paul Society NSW
	Susan Helyar (Co-Chair) Director, ACT Council of Social Services	Tracy Wright (Co-Chair) State Director, Mission Australia NSW
Northern Territory	Queensland	South Australia
Katie Ryan (Co-Chair) Regional Social Justice Coordinator, Salvation Army NT	Ian Roberts (Co-Chair) CEO, Anglicare North Queensland	Peter Sandeman (Co-Chair) CEO, Anglicare South Australia
Jill Smith (Co-Chair) CEO, CAAPS	Matt Gardiner (Co-Chair) Executive Director, Benevolent Society	David Wark (Co-Chair) CEO, St Vincent de Paul South Australia
Victoria	Tasmania	Western Australia
Jenny Davidson (Co-Chair) CEO, Council of Single Mothers and their Children, Victoria	Stacey Milbourne (Co-Chair) State Manager, Salvation Army Tasmania	Jo Sadler (Co-Chair) State Director, Mission Australia WA
Vicki Sutton (Co-Chair) CEO, Melbourne City Mission	Catherine Viney (Co-Chair) State Manager, Baptcare Tasmania	David Cain (Co-Chair) Executive Director, Communicare

Our Sponsors

The Principal National Sponsors for 2018 are:

Brotherhood of St Laurence
Our mission is to research, develop and deliver innovative and high quality services, practices and policies to drive change that benefits all Australians. We work with others to create an Australia free of poverty for this and future generations: a fair and compassionate and just society where all can fully particpate in social and economic life, create and share prosperity and treat each other with dignity and respect.
The Scully Fund

St Vincent de Paul
The St Vincent de Paul Society is a lay Catholic organisation that aspires to live the gospel message by serving Christ in the poor with love, respect, justice, hope and joy, and by working to shape a more just and compassionate society.
University of New South Wales
Anti-Poverty Week was founded by the Social Justice Project in the Law Faculty of the University of New South Wales and the National Office has been based there since 2004. The Law Faculty generously provides a work space and use of office equipment.

The following organisations also sponsor Anti-Poverty Week:

Key National Sponsors