Op Note: CSJ ROADSHOW IN LIVERPOOL: HOW TO MEND BROKEN BRITAIN

The Centre for Social Justice 9 Westminster Palace Gardens Artillery Row London SW1P 1RL Telephone 020 7340 9650 Website www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk Release date: Tuesday 16 March 2010 OPERATIONAL NOTE – FOR THE ATTENTION OF NEWS EDITORS AND PICTURE DESKS NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Think Tank run by former Leader of the Conservative Party Iain Duncan Smith to meet with 60 voluntary sector groups in Liverpool The Centre for Social Justice will be in Liverpool on Thursday 25 March for an event designed to boost the morale of local voluntary sector groups in their efforts to mend Broken Britain. The CSJ team will join a panel of 2 local voluntary sector experts highly successful in tackling drug addiction, youth crime and anti-social behaviour. Presentations will describe the depth of poverty in the UK today and how small voluntary sector groups are crucial if we are to mend Broken Britain. Invited guests include voluntary sector groups, councillors, Parliamentary Candidates and students. The CSJ has developed over 700 policies aimed at reversing social breakdown and helping Britain’s hardest hit communities. Over 2,000 voluntary sector groups have provided evidence which has shaped these policies, many adopted by both the Government and the Conservative Party. Date: Thursday 25 March 2010 Venue: Frontline, Corner of Lawrence/Wellington Rd, Wavertree, Liverpool, L15 0HY Time: 5.30pm – 7.20pm Charlotte Pickles, CSJ Policy Director; Gavin Poole, CSJ Strategy Director; Dr Samantha Callan, CSJ Chairman-in-Residence are available for interviews on Thursday morning from 11am. For media inquiries, please contact Nick Wood of Media Intelligence Partners Ltd on 07889 617003 or 0203 008 8146 or Alistair Thompson on 07970 162225 or 0203 008 8145. NOTES TO EDITORS • The Centre for Social Justice is an independent think tank established, by Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP in 2004, to seek effective solutions to the poverty that blights parts of Britain. • The CSJ are visiting a number of cities throughout March and April including: Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds. • In July 2007 the group published Breakthrough Britain. Ending the Costs of Social Breakdown. The paper provided practical policy solutions for tackling family breakdown, addiction, educational failure, welfare dependency, personal debt and described a new role for the voluntary sector in their remedy. • Subsequent reports have put forward proposals for reform of the police, prisons, benefits reform, social housing, the asylum system and family law. Other reports have dealt with street gangs and early intervention to help families with young children. The panellists from the voluntary sector groups at the CSJ Liverpool event are: Jill Quayle , Tranmere Community Projects 0151 6491 685 Jill Quayle is the Project Manager at Tranmere Community Project, a local charity that provides alternative education for young people aged 12 and 19 who have disengaged from learning and who are finding it difficult to cope with training. Their programmes help young people able to make positive changes in their lives. www.tcp.org.uk Greg Walker, Create 07710 502 855 CREATE is a charity and social business based in Speke in Liverpool that provides training and work opportunities for long term unemployed adults or those with a disadvantage in the workplace by recycling used electrical products and selling affordable refurbished white goods to low income households. www.createuk.com