About Us

Membership & Governance

Membership is open to all organisations that share our desire to tackle poverty.  Go to our membership page to find out how to join us.  We have a sliding scale of fees that apply to all organisations, although these can be waived for organisations with low or no funding.

We encourage members to actively participate in the life of the organisation, formally through our Annual General Meeting (AGM), or in the various activities we run throughout the year.

The Poverty Alliance is governed by a board which is elected by full members each year at the AGM.  The board sets the strategic direction of the organisation and meets regularly.

To discuss membership of the Board or any aspect of our governance contact peter.kelly@povertyalliance.org

 

Board members

Anela Anwar

Convenor

 

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Hugh Foy

Vice Convenor

 

Hugh is the Head of Programmes at the Conforti Institute

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Dave Moxham

Board Member

Dave is the Deputy General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress

 

 

 

 

 

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John Dickie

Board Member

John Dickie is Director of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland.  John is responsible for promoting and influencing policies that will contribute to eradicating child poverty in Scotland, as well as the overall strategic development of second tier welfare rights support services that ensure frontline workers are able to support families to receive the tax credits and benefits that they are entitled to.

John was previously Head of the Youth Unit at the Scottish Council for Single Homeless before which he worked directly with young people experiencing homelessness.  John is a graduate from Aberdeen University in Sociology and Social Anthropology and holds a postgraduate diploma in Housing Studies from Stirling University.  John lives in Edinburgh and enjoys walking, cycling and travel among other things.

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Nick Bailey

Treasurer

Nick Bailey is Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow. He has a long-standing interest in the analysis of poverty and inequality, particularly in Scotland. He was involved in the Poverty and Social Exclusion UK 2012 Survey (www.poverty.ac.uk), the largest survey on this subject ever conducted in the UK. He has advised national and local governments on the measurement and analysis of poverty. Current research includes a number of projects which are trying to make better use of personal information captured by the range of administrative systems which we use in our daily lives (the benefits system, health and education, for example). 

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Mary McLean 

Board Member

Biography to follow

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Rachel McEwen

Board member

Biography to follow

 

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Dave Liddell

Board member

David has worked for Scottish Drugs Forum since its inception in 1986 and in the field of drugs, alcohol and homelessness for over 30 years in England, Ireland and Scotland. He is on the UK Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, where he has been leading a review of the harms caused by cocaine.

He served on the Ministerial Drug Task Force in 1994, played an active role in the former Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse and, since the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, he has been a Secretary to the Cross Party Group on Alcohol and Drug Misuse. An active member of the European Civil Society Forum on Drugs, David is a regular media commentator on issues relating to problematic drugs use in Scotland. He has contributed to a number of publications on drug use in Scotland.

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Irena Patterson

Board member

 

Irena has been on the board of the Poverty Alliance for more than three years. She was previously a lecturer and retired due to disability. She is now the chair of Moray Disability Forum. She has been involved in issues around social care integration with the NHS.  She is concerned about the future funding for services for older people, as well as problems in the local economy including the use of zero hours contracts. 

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Bill Scott

Board Member 

Bill is currently Director of Policy for Inclusion Scotland. Bill has previously worked as: a Senior Researcher in the Scottish Parliament; as Deputy Manager of Pilton Community Health Project; as Director of Lothian Anti-Poverty Alliance; as a Racial Equality Officer; as a Training & Development Worker for Edinburgh Employment Rights Campaign and as a Welfare Rights Worker. He has also served as Convenor of the Scottish Employment Rights Network, Chair of Granton Information Centre and as a Board member with SkillNet and Edinburgh Unemployed Workers Centre. He is currently a Trustee of Edinburgh & Lothians Trust Fund and also serves on a number of Scottish Government reference and scrutiny groups (e.g. Disability Benefits Stakeholder Group, Welfare Reform Health Impact Delivery Group and the Disabled Children and Young People’s Advisory Group).

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