With a small donation and big faith, John Kirkby started Christians Against Poverty in 1996. He believed God was calling him to sacrifice his career in finance and use his knowledge of the industry to help the poor.

In his hometown of Bradford, John set off on the incredible journey of CAP. His faith adventure led him to people crippled by debt; parents who couldn’t feed their children, families facing eviction and desperate people living in fear and without hope. He used his expertise to negotiate with creditors, set up budgeting systems and offer a lifeline to those trapped in debt.

John knew that people all over the country were struggling in the same way and he began looking to replicate the work across the UK. With the vital ingredients of a church to partner with, a passionate person to be trained as a debt counsellor and the faith that God would provide, four new CAP centres were opened at the end of 1998.

Since then, CAP has rapidly grown its centre network and provides the best debt help service to those with the very least. CAP started running CAP Money Courses in partnership with local churches to help people budget, save and prevent debt. Our vision is to help answer the national problem of debt by opening a CAP Debt Centre and running a CAP Money Course in every town and city in the UK so anyone can receive CAP’s life changing help.