Flashmobs, prayers & sleepouts for poverty action week

All over the country, churches of all denominations are preparing for Poverty & Homelessness Action Week, which takes place from 28 January to 5 February. There will be flash mobs in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, discussions in Sheffield, arts events in London and Cambridge, baking in Leicester, a fair in Nottingham and numerous sleep outs and prayer services.

Alison Gelder, Director of Housing Justice said: "In these difficult economic time it is really heartening to see so many Christians recognising the problems faced by their fellow citizens and gearing up to take action to break barriers and create lasting change."

The week also sees the launch of a new winter night shelter project in Birmingham and a community new service run by homeless people in Leicester.

As well as attending events to draw attention to the issues people will be marking the week by following an online prayer diary. See the diary on http://bit.ly/et7yOu

To follow it people need to register on the website www.actionweek.org.uk or follow on Facebook (Poverty and Homelessness Action Week) or Twitter (@phactionweek).

The diary, which runs for eight days from Homelessness Sunday on 29 January to Poverty Action Sunday on 5 February, highlights a different barrier every day with information about the issue, prayer points and suggestions for action to break it down. The highlighted barriers are: housing benefit, silence, support, stigmatisation, housing shortage, pay and tax.