Salford anti-poverty campaigners added their voices today to a national conference calling for improvements in how society talks about people in poverty.
Multiple workshops and talks brought activists together to help challenge stigmas surrounding those in poverty.
The conference was run by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the FrameWorks Institute.
Abigail Scott Paul, 44, deputy director of advocacy and public engagement at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “Across the UK there are certain patterns of thinking that are helpful to understanding poverty but also unhelpful.
“Unhelpful examples are like real poverty doesn’t exist in this country. They think poverty is something that only exists in Africa or India or this idea that we are post-poverty.”
The foundation hopes to help shatter the negative and further establish the positive ideas surrounding poverty.
Miss Paul said: “It’s really vital that any effort to solve poverty is rooted in people’s own direct experience.
“People will remember a story far better than any statistic.”
A variety of media were used to help discuss poverty including a drawing workshop with Paul Brook.
Some incredible drawings from our doodle station at Framing North illustrating how poverty can restrict and restrain us. #TalkingAboutPoverty pic.twitter.com/QWwDgVAuKJ
— Joseph Rowntree Fdn. (@jrf_uk) February 11, 2020
Psychology graduate Shirley Widdop spoke about her own experience of poverty during the conference notably through her poems, one of which can be found below.
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