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Giving Poverty a Voice

Project Host
ATD Fourth World
Revenue
543,449
Charity Number
209367
Project aims
To challenge oppressive social policies in the UK that tend to subject families in poverty to harsh investigations and assessments and splinter them into the care system or contested closed adoptions creating a generational cycle of harm and family separaration.
Project description
Led by people with lived experience of poverty and children's social care interventions, this multi-year project challenges short-sighted risk-averse policies that separate loving families. Economic injustice undermines the human right to family life. Unfairly designed systems undermine families while funding cuts exacerbate inequality. Poverty harms physical, emotional, mental and social well-being. Misrepresentation about poverty and a lack of understanding lead to negative judgement, stigma and blame, which are deeply destructive. Prejudice and discrimination result in people in poverty feeling dehumanised. But even while facing the daily impact of poverty, people also have a wealth of experience and life skills to contribute to society and to their communities. Using the Merging of Knowledge methodology developed by ATD Fourth World, this project values and harnesses their unrecognised talents to deliver anti-poverty-practice training and to run study groups on poverty, social work, and the right to family life. With partners in the fields of social work, family law, and human rights, we work on the relationship between poverty and shame, the impact of material deprivation upon social work practice, and the politics of recognition and respect. By broadening perspectives and deepening thinking, we are developing new approaches to transform an unjust reality.
Contact name
Diana Skelton
Phone
07452958458
Email
diana.skelton@atd-fourthworld.org
Website
https://atd-uk.org/projects-campaigns/giving-poverty-a-voice/

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