‘Sharing Power to Shape Mission’ will bring together local people who have lived experience of poverty with local church leaders to develop a shared understanding and find ways of working together to tackle poverty in South Manchester and beyond.
The project is inspired by Poverty Truth Commissions, which bring together grassroots commissioners with local decision-makers from the civic and business sectors. Now we seek to bring this approach to the church. This builds on work Church Action on Poverty has been doing with the United Reformed Church on developing an anti-poverty strategy, ‘A Church With People at the Margins’.
The group have spoken powerfully about identity and stigma, and the labels and assumptions that people put on them. They have talked about the power of being able to make choices over their own lives, and how dehumanising it can feel to have those choices taken away from them.
The grassroots participants, who come from across South Manchester, have been meeting together since February to share their experiences and explore the theme of dignity. The group have spoken powerfully about identity and stigma, and the labels and assumptions that people put on them. They have talked about the power of being able to make choices over their own lives, and how dehumanising it can feel to have those choices taken away from them. The group are beginning to explore these themes in relation to their experience of church, whether that is as church-goers, as recipients of services provided by churches, or as volunteers in church-run projects.
After Easter the grassroots participants will be joined by a group of church leaders from a range of denominations. This larger group will meet together regularly for the rest of the year. The aim is to come up with two or three concrete ideas for things that the group, the church and wider community partners could do together. What the group will do has not been decided in advance – it will emerge from a process of deep listening and collaborative learning.
This approach draws on the methodology of Paolo Freire, creating an environment where all members of the group, grassroots and church leaders alike, will learn from each other and take action together based on what they learn. Together the group will create a deeper understanding of what poverty is and take steps to change that reality.
