The Alliance

In partnership with the CSJ Foundation, the CSJ is inspired and nourished by its unique relationship with the poverty-fighting CSJ Alliance, a 400-strong network of charities, social enterprises and other organisations.

This frontline army has critical experience and expertise of addressing poverty and supporting the most vulnerable people and communities.

These organisations are spread across the length and breadth of Britain, acting as our eyes and ears on the ground. These small and innovative ventures are highly effective and truly understand the nature of poverty and social breakdown.

“The Alliance tackle the underlying root causes of poverty, not just the symptoms, in their bid to transform lives”

The CSJ Foundation connects these organisations to researchers and decision-makers to bring their expertise into UK policymaking. With offices across the UK, the CSJ Foundation works with these charities to develop an understanding from the ground up.

The CSJ draws heavily from the Alliance’s experience, meaning the Government can be sure that the reforms we suggest are based on what has been road tested and proven to work on the ground. This helps the Government develop effective strategies to alleviate the suffering of the poorest and prevents policies being developed which are detached from reality.

If you are a charity and can offer frontline insight and can benefit from capacity building training and funding, then we would like to hear from you.

How the CSJ works

We link with nearly 450 of the best grassroots charities from across the United Kingdom…

We fuse these ideas with specialists…

In 2020/2021 our Alliance helped us create many major policy recommendations:

• Last year’s Award winner, My Cheshire Without Abuse, helped us persuade the Government that those working in the Domestic Abuse sector should be recognised as key workers so that their children could continue attending school during lockdown.
• The Cabinet Office launched a review of government debt collection practices after our Alliance charities highlighted poor practices.
• The Government included Serious Violence Reduction Orders in the current Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. These orders were recommended by Alliance charities who work with young people involved in criminal gangs.
• The Government announced a new addiction strategy reflecting the CSJ’s report ‘Road to Recovery’ and have begun five treatment pilots based on the experience of a number of Alliance charities reported in that paper.