On Wednesday the 14th of October, to commemorate ten years of Poverty2Solutions, we invited past and present members, friends, allies, and partners to launch our research paper, “Participation, Policy and Possibilities: Collaborating for Change”.
Graciously hosted by our funders (Joseph Rowntree Foundation), we had the opportunity to connect with those we have worked alongside for so long, to discuss both the challenges and potential successes with implementing a meaningful approach to working alongside people with lived experience of poverty, and harness the current opportunity presented by the enactment of the duty and inclusion of guidance on how to integrate Lived Experience of poverty and socio-economic disadvantage into decision making; to help drive the practice and culture shift needed amongst duty bearers to ensure this is done in a meaningful way.
To kick off our jam packed agenda Daisy Sands, long time member of Poverty2Solutions and Head of Policy Campaigns and Impact at JRF, explained why JRF have continued to fund and champion Poverty2Solutions and why they feel like this work matters, especially now.
Tracey Herrington went on to introduce the event and its focus and to share her ambitions for what comes next. Tracey also spoke about the possibilities but also the challenges inherent in participatory policymaking, and its particularly and very timely relevance to the implementation of the socio-economic duty and the development of its guidance.
“Our journey has been ten years- ten years of both challenges and opportunities. What has been constant throughout our journey is the unwavering commitment of people who have lived (and continue to live) in some very difficult circumstances. Always on the sharp end of policies that in theory are designed to make lives better, but in reality, have created further hardship. We often hear about the changes our work has made to people who have been part of our journey but rarely hear about the positive impact on other people or organisations. I welcomed the responses from Frank Soodeen, Director JRF and his inspirational reflections at the close of the event. It was heartening to hear how the work of Poverty2Solutions had impacted on JRF’s philanthropic work. Hearing from the OEO again was refreshing, they talked in depth about how our work had influenced the shaping of the Socio-Economic Duty guidance and their recent research (how socio-economic disadvantage impacts on people’s live) they had commissioned. Changing practice within the Civil Service, to me, was no easy short-term task, but the willingness to learn from our group is something that will always remind me of why I do what I do”
Reflecting ten years of work in under fifteen minutes, Dan, Dylan and Ruth took attendees down memory lane.
“Different people, different paths, but the same realities, the same frustrations, and the same determination to see things change. We are Poverty2Solutions. An award-winning collaboration of people with lived and learned expertise of poverty and socio-economic disadvantage. More importantly, we are community activists, academics, policy workers, designers, writers, poets, print makers, filmmakers and researchers.”
In 2016, we were three distinct groups, creating our own solutions to Poverty and drawing on our own realities, reflective of our lived experiences in Teesside, London and Leeds. With the help of graphic designer Dan Farley and researcher Ruth Patrick, we realised that the issues that we faced in our own communities and our solutions to these issues were almost identical. Collaboration was the natural next step; and the rest is history.
From launching our proposals at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty to having our own fringe event at the Labour Party Conference (and eventually we were rewarded with the duty being included in the Labour parties 2019 manifesto. “We will put class at the heart of Britain’s equality agenda and create a new ground for discrimination on the basis of socio-economic disadvantage.” Our goal was to remind the audience of our triumphs, without forgetting the challenges of fighting for the duty, bracing through an ever-changing political climate.
Behind the scenes, we have been a collective member of the Expert Advisory Group working with The Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO). Our role has been to co-produce and publish purposeful guidance and support materials. On the day, Isabelle Sherlock from the Equality Framework Team joined us to discuss reflections on developing the Socio-Economic Duty guidance, it was important to hear about this unique example where the cabinet office have incorporated a collaborative approach, not only to help shape the guidance but also conducting a piece of research to fully understand socio-economic disadvantage in communities. Positive feedback from working alongside Poverty2solutions and other partners included the importance of “closing the loop” and providing updates and feedback to ensure meaningful participation and communications, noting a positive shift in the way their team work.
We were also joined by Ben Geiger, an academic who has done various sorts of coproduction, ranging from a coproduced comparison of how it feels to claim benefits in five European countries, to being on the panel of the current coproduced Timms Review of PIP, spoke about co-production principles in practice.
Following was a roundtable discussion exploring two questions:
How can we work with and support government to really embed effective participatory policymaking across its activities?
What are the particular opportunities, but also the challenges, inherent to working in a participatory way to deliver the socio-economic duty? And why is it so important to get this right?
Frank Soodeen, Director at JRF spoke positively about our event and the work we have been doing over the last ten years. The Poverty2Solutions team were grateful to Frank for taking the time to attend and share some inspiring words.
To close off, Thriving Women poets Julie Easley and Sarah York shared poetry they had written during the event, using key moments from the day as inspiration.
“Ten Years
ten long years we’ve been here
advocating for solutions to poverty
while the inequalities in wealth
have widened
leaving the poor to pay the price
ten years grounded
in lived experience
a collective of voices country-wide
echoing “the impact of your decisions hurt”
it is the poor who have to justify
just living
who have to track every transaction
who have to bear the box-ticking burden
of compliance
politicians will tell you of cost
the poor are an expense we cannot afford
what if you pulled out a chair at the table
welcomed lived experience in the space
opened the heart of policy-making
to one that beats for all
do your duty for equality
because poverty hurts
do your duty because a poor life
is not an equal life
but we told you that ten years ago.”
“Long Days Stuck in Mud
I ride a bus called poverty
Like others, this is the only route
No change, no choice
And so I ride this bus
Sharp jolt, wheels spin
Stuck once again
So I get off to push
I need to get home, I don’t have a choice
Rain pours, Cars bark
Pushing in the mud
I don’t have a choice
I need to get home
Drivers holler
“Why not stop the buses?”
If they’re going to be in the way
In the rain, I don’t have a choice
So I push, others sometimes help
“Save the bus, its so vogue”
until its not
Pushing in the mud, alone again
Thick smoke, mud flies
finally movement
Poverty moves, but so far behind
I sit back on the bus
I don’t get a choice”
“Reform
Hello and welcome
To the new Welfare State
Please feel free to talk
Have a cuppa while you wait
We’ll take a few details
Fill a form in, or two
Just tell us, honestly
How disability affects you
We can chat about your meds
Doctors, carers, support
Then point you to others
Whose help you’ve not sought
We’ll believe you and listen
That’s all you should do
Then sign at the bottom
That your story is true”
We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our fantastic past and present volunteers and valued members of Poverty2Solutions. Together, we have achieved so much and we couldn’t have done it without you. Sharing your reality is a challenge in itself, but using that alongside your knowledge and expertise on what it’s like to live in Poverty and want to make a difference is something to be admired.
Thank you to all of our friends, partners and allies who we have shared this space with over the years. There’s strength in numbers, and if we continue to work in unity then who knows what we can do.
As you can imagine, it’s quite hard to summarise ten years of work in a two hour event, or a blog post like this. We have travelled places we never thought we would go, met people we never thought we’d be able to meet, and brought together a pretty unique team of people, with a huge range of experience, perspectives and, at times, probably more ideas than we knew what to do with. It’s been ten long years, and at times we have wondered whether we were in over our heads. We have braced ourselves through an ever changing political climate, and we now feel like we’re on the cusp of real tangible change.
And the thing is, we don’t want this to be the end of the journey. In many ways, it feels like we’re only just getting started.
We have spent ten years building something that we believe has real value. We’ve brought people together, challenged assumptions, opened doors and explored what becomes possible when people with lived experience are given the opportunity to have a seat around the table.
Thank you
