A project to help shape policies and practices around people living in poverty has been given a £60,000 boost.
Westmorland and Furness Council has allocated the cash to the South Lakeland Poverty Truth Commission, which brings together those with experience of living with poverty, and representatives from local business, civic and charitable organisations to create positive change.
The commission was set up in September 2022 and has made connections with a range of people, communities and organisations including local food projects, farmers’ networks, faith-based organisations and local health projects and health services.
Last year, a launch event was held in Windermere where representatives from public organisations were able to listen to and learn from the voices of lived experiences of community commissioners from across South Lakeland.
Since then, the representatives of local organisations – or Civic Commissioners – have joined the community commissioners to form the full Commission.
The group are drawn from all over South Lakeland, including Ambleside, Windermere, Kirkby Lonsdale, Ulverston, Grange and beyond. They will work together until the autumn looking for ways to improve services in the local area to better serve the people living on the edge in those communities.
Barrow also has a Poverty Truth Commission, launched in June last year and options are being looked at for the Eden area.
Councillor Judith Derbyshire, Westmorland and Furness Council cabinet member for housing and homelessness, said: “I am delighted that the council is able to support this important piece of work. The project aims to facilitate meaningful, hopefully transformative, listening and learning between two groups of people: those who understand poverty by living it, and those who know it from a governmental, civic or statutory point of view.
“The South Lakeland PTC is at the forefront of work in England relating to rural poverty with the vast majority of UK Poverty Truth Commissions operating in larger towns and areas of urban poverty or smaller more concentrated geographic areas. So, this much needed funding will enable the commission to complete its two-year cycle and provide added value and impact.
“Much work and important conversations have already taken place since the commission’s inception and I look forward to seeing and hearing about how this funding helps further the project’s ambitions.”
Lois Sparling, South Lakeland commission co-ordinator, added: “We are so excited to know that we can now carry this important work to its completion at the end of this year and really hopeful that it will be the start of a culture change that spreads throughout our communities – about listening deeply to one another’s experiences in order to make the best decisions about services that affect all our lives.”
