Category

• Emerging Local Practice

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Poverty impact

• Awareness

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Poverty driver

• Non-driver - improving quality of life

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Keywords

• Stigma
• Employment
• Education

Aim

The aim of, Challenging Poverty Related Stigma is to make the process of seeking help in the workplace and for individuals accessing services less complicated and more supportive. The project was developed in response to the Edinburgh Poverty Commissions recommendation to make it easier for individuals with lived experience of poverty to receive support.

Summary

The City of Edinburgh Council’s, Challenging Poverty Related Stigma project aims to reduce poverty stigma through the delivery to organisational staff a series of ten short awareness videos funded by the Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Accelerator Fund. Released monthly, the videos explore poverty, stigma, empathy, and supportive practice. The project seeks to improve staff understanding of how poverty stigma affects individuals and prevents people from seeking help. It also encourages compassionate responses to service users and raises awareness that colleagues may also be experiencing financial hardship. The initiative was developed with support from The Poverty Alliance.

What difference does it make?

While the project has great potential to make a difference, it is too early to assess as the project is in early stages of development.

Key take-aways

• Prioritise the areas of the council or organisation to target, based on their role and the extent to which they interact with people who might be experiencing poverty, and areas where staff might be more at risk of being in poverty (e.g. lower grades) – but recognising that anyone can find themselves struggling with money.

 

Organisations

The Poverty Alliance. City of Edinburgh Council.

Location

Edinburgh (throughout).

Contact