December 20, 2022

Lois Sparling, Coordinator of the South Lakes Poverty Truth Commission, looks back on an intense first few months in post.

From the first day we met at the CVS offices in Barrow, Stella and I have been extremely passionate and excited about the huge task we’ve been entrusted with – that of setting up South Lakeland’s first Poverty Truth Commission to enable the voices of people with lived experience of poverty to be heard in local service design and policy-making – and to change lives by doing so.

Almost 4 months down the line we’re still discovering how huge the task is – not only how diverse, disparate and hard-to-reach the communities that we need to draw into the process are, but also how many different individuals, organisations and services are keen to know how to support them better.

 

Meeting colleagues, funders and partners

In a sense the whole work of the PTC is partnerships or relationships – between local services, local government and community groups as well as with and between community commissioners and civic commissioners, and also wider community-building to support each other through financial struggles.

Our first relationship-building was with our lovely colleagues at Cumbria CVS – starting over pie and peas in Barrow on that first day and then expanding to our funders – SLDC, Population Health and the County Council – and our support group (including services like Citizens’ Advice and Manna House). We also spent some very important time practising those rapport-building muscles on each other – over coffees in and around Newby Bridge, our halfway point between Kendal and Ulverston.

Meeting the media

Then in October, with a clearer picture of what we were doing, we launched our first media campaign – managing to get air time on lots of radio stations and Border TV, as well as column inches in the press and online. Everyone was just beginning to talk about the cost of living crisis and they were ready for a local angle on it all. We got our first leaflets printed and began to head out into our local communities of Kendal and Ulverston to begin with.

Meeting community groups and services

Since then we’ve made over 100 new contacts with local individuals, groups and networks who have almost all been hugely supportive of the project and keen to share their knowledge (and always more ‘must-meet’ contacts). Lots of coffees and teas, a handful of community events, a few sessions joining volunteers at food groups, a few speaking engagements (more already lined up for the New Year at the Women’s Institute, Young Farmers for me) and a couple of auction mart visits.

We’ve learned so much – the biggest area for me so far being farming, after meetings with the Farmer Network, Farming Community Network and RABI in recent weeks and fascinating visits to the auction marts and a local farm – just one vital segment of our community going through extremely tough times right now.

Meeting potential community commissioners

We’re also, both of us, starting to build relationships with the brave and generous volunteers whom we hope will join our first group meetings early in the New Year as Community Commissioners. For now they’re in and around Ulverston and Kendal but we will be looking further afield in the New Year. Part of the strategy for that is our final piece for 2022…

The What’s YOUR story campaign?

The more we’ve met people the more we felt we needed a short sharp slogan – a simple message and a strapline to ease people into the conversations we want to have. Stella came up with the great idea of the T-shirts which say: What’s YOUR story? (on the front) and Share your experience, inspire real change (on the back) and they’ve gone down really well.

We’ve also got a fantastic new volunteer who has set up our South Lakes PTC Facebook page and designed our new logo. We’ve got a new clutch of leaflets and posters which we’re trying to get to all the warm spots and noticeboards we can over the winter. And the coup de grace is our little What’s YOUR story? slideshow which our partners at Population Health helped us send out to all GP practices in South Lakeland in December.

Thanks to everyone we’ve met so far – it’s been more than inspirational. See you (and your contacts) in 2023!

Find out more about the South Lakeland Poverty Truth Commission here