Storied Lives: Amplifying Experiences of Poverty

About the Project

Storied Lives: Amplifying Experiences of Poverty is an outreach project that will disseminate four composite stories describing experiences of poverty in the Guelph-Wellington community. The outreach project includes a live reading of the stories with panel commentary, which will be recorded and shared in podcasts and audioclips. The stories were created using data from community members about their unique personal experiences, collected in a research project by the Guelph and Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination (PTF), the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI), and the Live Work Well Research Centre (LWWRC). In a manner different from academic literature or public fact sheets, these stories and related commentary have the power to increase awareness, shift attitudes, and further system and policy changes that address the root causes of poverty. By providing insight into lives lived--the nuanced, personal experiences of those facing issues of poverty--the project will fill an important gap in public discourse and education.

The overarching goal of this project is to share these composite stories and commentary as a way of demonstrating the complexity of the experiences of living on low income in order to improve policies, programs, and practices aimed at supporting those living on low income. These complexities are often unseen and not well understood, and the voices of those living on low-income are not often included in policy-making discussions. Disseminating the composite narratives will address these challenges by illustrating the realities that shape the lives of individuals living on low income in the Guelph-Wellington region, and the informative commentary will situate individual stories in the broader socio-cultural environment of the community. Specifically, this project has the following objectives:

1. Amplify the voices of those living on low income by bringing their composite stories to life through dramatic performances for the public and for decision- and policy-makers;

2. Support policy and system-change work by sharing the powerful insights from these stories and panel commentary more widely with community leaders and decision-makers;

3. Enrich the knowledge of practitioners and service providers who support those living on low income by sharing stories of personal experiences of poverty and complementary panel discussion on related issues;

4. Promote changes in public attitudes by contributing to discourse about poverty in our community; and

5. Contribute to curriculum and teaching materials with digital content that is easy for teachers and students to access and use.

This outreach project comprises four components: 1) Live event: The four composite stories will be read by actors. Following the reading of each story, an expert panel, including those with lived experience of poverty as well as those with knowledge based on research and professional practice, will add context and insight. 2) Production of audioclips and podcasts: The readings and panel commentary will be recorded and edited to create digital recordings of the stories as well as podcasts and audioclips. 3) Digital launch: The recorded stories, audioclips, and podcasts will be posted online on the PTF website and on Spotify and Apple Music to make them publicly available. The PTF will share the clips and stories in targeted ways, such as in meetings and presentations with policy- and decision-makers and community stakeholders. 4) Supplementary education materials: Using a community engaged teaching and learning approach, the project will incorporate student-led research and campus outreach projects, and digital recordings will be available for use in curriculum by teachers in a variety of educational settings.