When we think about poverty, we tend to reach first for budgets and benefits. But what affected individuals and communities tell us, time and again, is that poverty is also social and psychological. It is the daily effort to avoid stigma and shame. Local government, as well as other levels of policy making, have more control over that experience than is sometimes acknowledged but they must involve the people who are directly affected by the services that set out to meet their needs.
At the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP), we have spent the last three years working with local authorities, the Welsh Government, experts by experience and academics, to explore what poverty stigma is, where it comes from and what can be done in Wales and beyond to prevent and address it. Over the last year we've worked closely with partners in Swansea to bring lived experience and community insights into dialogue with international academic evidence to co-create evidence-informed actions for change. Here, we share some of the key learning from Voices of Swansea: Challenging Poverty Stigma Together - our exploration of local insights in Swansea and international academic and practice-based evidence.
