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Community Foundation North East awarded Children North East with a Hometown Heroes Award at its inaugural North East Roots: Homecoming Awards and Showcase, to recognise the organisation’s nationally influential work tackling child poverty.
The award celebrates North East organisations whose ideas and impact have grown far beyond the region. Children North East received an award alongside Live Theatre and Equal Arts, highlighting the breadth of innovation emerging from the North East across social, cultural and community organisations.
John Hollingsworth, Chief Philanthropy and Development Officer at Community Foundation North East, said:
“The North East has a proud tradition of producing ideas and organisations that influence the nation, and our Homecoming Awards and Showcase was created to celebrate exactly that.
Children North East’s Poverty Proofing® methodology is a powerful example of innovation born in our region that is now shaping national practice and policy. By recognising their work — alongside Live Theatre and Equal Arts — we are celebrating the North East’s role as a driver of meaningful social change.”
Children North East was recognised for its pioneering Poverty Proofing® methodology, a nationally recognised approach to identifying and removing the barriers experienced by people living in poverty. Poverty Proofing® supports organisations to listen to the lived experiences of people affected by poverty and to use those insights to reduce stigma, remove barriers to participation, and embed fairer decision-making.
First developed in 2011 through a project exploring children’s perceptions of poverty in schools, Poverty Proofing® has since expanded nationally across the School Day, Healthcare, Cultural Settings, Early Years, and Communities. The programme has worked with partners including the Welsh Government, the NHS, Northern Stage, and BALTIC.
In 2025, Children North East’s Poverty Proofing® work was highlighted multiple times as best practice in the Government’s National Child Poverty Strategy, reinforcing its role as a model for organisations across the UK.
Leigh Elliott, Chief Executive of Children North East, said:
“We were honoured to receive a Hometown Heroes Award at the inaugural Homecoming Awards and Showcase. It’s a meaningful recognition of the difference our work continues to make for babies, children, young people and their families across the North East and beyond.
Our Poverty Proofing® programme is designed to understand the root causes of poverty and remove the barriers faced by those experiencing financial hardship, ensuring every child can fully participate in education, culture and healthcare. We’re proud that this work has also been referenced in the Government’s National Child Poverty Strategy.
We are truly grateful to Community Foundation North East for acknowledging the impact of this work, and the wider efforts our team delivers every day to support the next generation growing up in the North East.”
The Hometown Heroes award was created to shine a spotlight on charitable organisations with deep regional roots whose work is shaping conversations, policy and practice across the country, reinforcing the North East’s reputation as a place where nationally significant ideas are born.
