In 2019, Staffordshire University worked in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent’s Hardship Commission to deliver Get Talking Hardship, a participatory action research project which recruited and trained a team of community researchers to help understand the experiences of people living with hardship and poverty in the city.
The lead researchers recruited a team of 43 community researchers who were trained and supported to conduct research with over 250 people across Stoke-on-Trent between February and June 2019. The findings from the research informed the Hardship Commission’s Terms of Reference and lead to the growth of a Raising Voices community steering group and Manifesto for Change.
The project aimed to find out:
The research showed that people in Stoke-on-Trent may fall into hardship and/or poverty due to a range of different but intersecting reasons. These causes can be divided into ‘push’ factors, that is, wider national and local institutional and policy decisions or structural changes and developments, and ‘pull’ factors, that is, personal causes.
The project funded by The National Lottery Community Fund through VOICES.
Full breakdown available via the Get Talking Hardship report