One of our strategic aims is to embed the voices of people with lived experience of poverty in the decision-making structures of Greater Manchester and beyond.

People living in poverty or who have lived in poverty bring unique insights to systems that affect their lives.

We advocate for meaningful involvement of people with lived experience across sectors and at every level of decision-making, with people also compensated appropriately for their time and expertise.

We will soon be launching a new Poverty Reference Group (PRG) for Greater Manchester. Building upon a previous group to influence the Greater Manchester Independent Inequalities Commission, the PRG will bring together a diverse group of people with lived experience of poverty from across the city region, to create a sustainable mechanism for influencing local decision-making.  

The group will build positive relationships with key stakeholders across all sectors, including the existing Equalities Panels, to ensure that the voices of people with lived experience of poverty are heard across relevant organisations, forums and networks.   

If you would like to know more about the Poverty Reference Group, please contact Daniel Oliver on daniel@gmpovertyaction.org. 

Poverty Truth Commissions (PTCs) create a space to meaningfully bring together people with different experiences, knowledge, and power. In these spaces, people who have had experience of living in poverty come together with senior civic, political and business leaders on an equal footing.

We facilitated the Tameside PTC between October 2021 and November 2022. You can read the PTC’s report here, as well as the “What If?” poem written and shared by commissioners about their reflections and experiences of poverty.

The Tameside PTC identified significant findings and made recommendations for positive change in Tameside. These include: 

• To create a Tameside Poverty Charter for local organisations to commit to, including involving people with lived experience of poverty in decision making. (This has now been established by Tameside Council). 
• To develop poverty awareness training with lived experience input, for frontline and other relevant staff in Tameside support services. (Tameside Council have designed a training session with input from PTC commissioners, for wider rollout across the workforce). 
• To declare a poverty emergency in Tameside. 

Please contact us if you are interested in having a PTC for your area. You can contact Daniel Oliver on daniel@gmpovertyaction.org.