APLE Collective lights up the UK map with the voices of lived experience
Posted on 15 Oct 2020 Categories: Blog
by APLE Collective
On 17 October the APLE Collective are lighting up the UK map with the voices of lived experience, sharing what it feels like to be heard as part of our annual International Day for the Eradication of Poverty campaign. This year marks the 27th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s designation of 17 October as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The theme this year is environmental and social justice.
APLE Collective members have been using a variety of creative communication approaches, including poetry workshops, book launches and social media videos, on what it means to be heard. We will also be hosting a Twitter takeover of our funder, Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s account, and launching blogs from each of our member organisations, all on the theme of what it feels like to be heard.
The 17 October is particularly important for APLE (Addressing Poverty with Lived Experience) as it reinforces the need to listen to the voices of those with expertise gained from lived experience in order to achieve effective social change. It is vital that those with lived experience of the issues are listened to when making decisions that will affect people’s lives and livelihoods. It is vital that our voices are involved in policy and strategic decision making, whether at national or local level. As one of our APLE Collective members states here:
‘Our voice means something and we have the knowledge, skills and abilities that should inform the debates, that will lead to policies that have a major impact on our lives.’
– Kathleen, APLE Collective member
In sharing our expertise from experience using visual, narrative and dramatic means, and linking this creative activism to how poverty is a structural and policy issue, APLE Collective aim to create spaces for reflection and to disrupt the traditional policy environment, reframing traditional policy space and paving the way for a more personal and human approach to anti-poverty policy and practice. APLE Collective members don’t simply want a voice: we want to be heard and to participate in social change.
The APLE Collective is a unique national collective of individuals and organisations who have experienced or are experiencing poverty, set up by leaders with lived experience of poverty and social exclusion. We only have members who are led by lived experience. We have eight member organisations: Thrive Teeside, ATD Fourth World, Dole Animators, Expert Citizens, Hartlepool Action Lab, Poverty Truth Community, RAPAR and Community Organisers. We campaign on national, regional and local anti-poverty agendas. Our aim is to create a sustainable grassroots network across the UK to raise awareness of poverty, reduce stigma and work together with others to eradicate it.
The network promotes the voices of those with lived experience of poverty and works collaboratively with others across society to use that voice to effect change. Our core objectives are:
- To create a supportive space for individuals who experience poverty, enabling them to take action to effect positive change
- To build the capacity of individual members and support organisations
- To provide opportunities for APLE members to work together at a national, regional or local level to amplify the voices and influence of those with lived experience of poverty
APLE Collective are committed to decision making by consensus and we are developing participatory governance structures as part of this commitment. The Collective recently responded quickly to the COVID-19 outbreak, campaigning on digital exclusion, particularly its silencing effect on the voices of people living in poverty and their inability to access information and support that was generally disseminated through social media channels.
We would like to invite you and organisations/groups that you work with to tell us what you are doing to campaign for the voices of lived experience on 17 October, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. We will add this to our UK map and light the map up with the experiences, knowledge and voices of expertise by lived experience. Do get in touch: www.aplecollective.com
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Posted on 15 Oct 2020 Categories: Blog