Fighting poverty and promoting active inclusion is a major challenge for most European welfare states. This chapter argues that much current welfare research has focused on national policies and systems despite most anti-poverty strategies are put into practice at local level. The chapter explores the local welfare system approach and maintains that it is important to study the role public and civil society actors play, local strategies against poverty, what welfare governance arrangements prevail in contacts between them and how local welfare systems are connected to higher levels of steering and regulation. The chapter reviews existing research on welfare and social assistance regimes and presents five local case studies.