Charity Number: 1197493

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End Poverty Pledge
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Charity Number: 1197493

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End Poverty Pledge

Research and Participation

Research that drives change.

Listening to the community we support is at the centre of everything we do. Their experiences shape our understanding of the issues that matter most, and they guide the research we produce to call for meaningful, lasting change.

Our research spans several key areas:

  • Understanding the impact of our services. We explore how our Foodbank, Pantries, Support Work and Refugee Network affect the lives of the people who use them. This helps us identify what’s working well and where we can improve, ensuring our services remain responsive, dignified and effective.
  • Investigating the root causes of poverty. Beyond meeting immediate need, we look at the structural issues that push people into hardship. Recent work, such as our research on the cost of the school day, highlights the everyday pressures families face and the policy changes needed to address them.
  • Strengthening long-term support in the community. We examine how local services, such as housing , employment and health support – can better help people build stability and move out of crisis for good. Our aim is to understand what increases their impact and how these systems can work more effectively together.

Through this work, we amplify the voices of our clients and use evidence to advocate for solutions that tackle both the symptoms and causes of poverty.

Recent research projects

Understanding how employment and skills support are working in Surrey, 2026.

This project set out to understand how well local employment and skills services are supporting residents who are looking for work or trying to move into more secure, better paid roles.

We spoke directly with people who use our services, including food bank clients, pantry members and advice support clients – to hear about their experiences of employment and skills support. Their insights covered a wide range of situations, from navigating employment to seeking progression while in insecure or low paid work. Most importantly, they shared thoughtful suggestions how local employment support could be improved to better meet people’s needs.

This research was jointly funded by Research Ready Surrey and Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDR) Surrey, enablingus to explore how employment services can play a stronger role in improving long term wellbeing and financial security

Employment and Skills Support Research 2026

Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Surrey

We are part of an exciting collaboration called Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) funded by the National Institute for Health and Cafe Research (NIHR) bringing together the voluntary sector with the local authority and universities. The collaboration is focused on the long-term factors that influence health and aims to make Surrey a healthier place to live, by strengthening how local government generates and uses research to shape decisions that truly reflect the needs of the community.

Our collaboration partners include: Surrey County Council, Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, University of Surrey, Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum, Surrey VCSE Alliance and Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership.

To find out more about Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Surrey, please see the website