Hull Poverty Truth Commission

What would happen if the people who face inequality and hardship could tell their stories and be heard? What if the power to make decisions and rebuild systems could be shifted to those people who are most affected by those decisions and systems?

Since 2022, Hull has been home to a Poverty Truth Commission, which will run until summer 2024. The Commission is part of a national network of similar projects that follow a model first launched in Scotland in 2009. Double Impact has animated stories developed by the Poverty Truth Network. Photograph of people sat round tables in a hall

Poverty Truth Commissions bring together 2 groups –

  • people with lived experience of struggling against poverty, who are known in the process as Community Commissioners
  • people who are decision-makers or policymakers from civic or business life, who are known in the process as Civic Commissioners

These people come together over a period of 2 years to listen to each other’s experiences and build relationships. They meet as humans, not job titles, and they share their stories and agree priorities for a local area with the aim of improving the lives of people in poverty. Commissions work in a trauma informed way, offering safe spaces that recognise individual stories and challenges. They work to the over-arching principle that ‘nothing about us, without us, is for us.’

Hull’s commission is hosted by local infrastructure charity Forum CIO, with support from Hull and East Riding Timebank and Groundwork. A wider partnership of charities, community groups and social businesses have supported the process and shared their ideas, resources, and insights.

Community and Civic Commissioners have explored –

  • personal challenges
  • barriers
  • assets
  • strengths

and considered how their lives have been influenced by these factors. They agreed to explore 3 themes for Hull’s Commission -

  • navigating services and systems – including attitudes, cultures and criteria
  • cost of living including working poverty. For example –
    • food
    • fuel
    • transport
    • essentials
  • access to healthcare, including mental health

Tackling themes has involved a mixture of longer-term systems change, and short-term policy change that can make a difference quickly. For example, exploring how frontline staff are trained and supported to work with people in a kind and compassionate way that takes into account trauma, poverty and barriers, or challenging the removal of carpets and soft furnishings from local authority properties when tenancies change. This can have a significant impact on quality of life and poverty.

'My Pockets' have produced a film which is a great resource to showcase the work on Hull’s Poverty Truth Commission. You can watch the short film on their Vimeo channel.