On the 15th of May, Wednesday, we hosted the launch event for the Hartlepool Poverty Truth Commission. After six months of planning, dedicated Hartlepool community commissioners produced the launch to shed light on the realities of life in Hartlepool and the challenges faced by those living in poverty.
During the event, community commissioners extended invitations to prominent civic and business leaders from across the borough, aiming to steer collaboration towards positive changes in Hartlepool. The launch garnered great success, drawing an engaged and receptive audience.
Community commissioners courageously took the stage to share their experiences and provide insights into life in Hartlepool. The event featured performances by local artists, presentations by the commissioners, group activities, and even poverty solutions proposed by a youth group from Hartlepool.
we are looking forward to the next steps and working together – merging our areas of expertise to develop positive steps to address local issues. This next gathering which brings together the community and decision-makers will take place on the 26th of June.
The event was chaired by Thrive Teesside’s Manager Tracey Herrington. After Tracey welcomed attendees and stated the house rules, this message was played to the audience.
The event was opened by Joe Donlan.
To give the audience a little bit more context, Joe introduced this video explaining what a Poverty Truth Commission is and how it works.
After the video was played, Joe bravely told her story and shared some of her struggles of living in Poverty.
“I face difficulties every day, I have a medical condition that limits me daily. I have 4 children, 2 are home-schooled due to issues and stress. I volunteer a lot of my time to help with my mental health. I have a lot of arrears and debt due to not managing my money very well, I have no family support to help with my children or with any other problems I may face. I have depended on groups like this to help me get some support on challenges I may face. The advice I have received is helping a lot, but it mostly boils down to not being able to earn more money, which would solve a lot of my debt problems and reduce further hardship in the future.
Before I made the decision to home-school my 2 youngest children, my son came home from school asking if he was a “poverty child” This devastated me, so as a Mam, it was my job to change that, so now I am trying to correct my mistakes, Council tax debt to start – I got a bill and it scared me, so I reached out for help with this. Someone made the call for me on my behalf, to try and cover the arrears, but what I was offering wasn’t good enough, what they want is not affordable for me, or again I would have to go without essentials, how am I meant to survive?”
Each community commissioner then got on stage one by one to share what poverty is to them.
“Poverty is… people having to use foodbanks.”
“Poverty is… not having enough money to survive.”
“Poverty is… worrying about not having enough food in the cupboards to feed your children for the month.”
“Poverty is… not paying for dental care so my children can have activities.”
Followed by them each finishing the sentence, “My truth is…”
(Video of this will be available soon.)
Next onto the stage was Sammi Reay.
“People are constantly told all the time that we must find jobs, we must work more hours, well I am disabled and I found a job, I work as many hours as I possibly can. I love to work and I try my hardest to stay employed despite my disabilities. Yet I still face challenges and difficulties with my universal credit.”
You can read Sammi’s full truth in the booklet provided below.
The talented Max Bianco crafted and produced an original song specially for our event, drawing inspiration from the valuable insights shared by our commissioners and the community of Hartlepool. A huge thank you to Max for this contribution to our launch event!
The song will be available to stream ASAP.
Next, Tracey introduced a video that showcased Hartlepool residents answering a series of questions about what it is like to live in the area, what are the struggles people in Hartlepool face and how poverty might affect someone. Community commissioners voiced some of these comments alongside varying photos of the town. This then prompted a discussion about the way the town looks and the reasons and barriers behind this.
Each table gave feedback on how these photos and comments made them feel, which then led into audience members answering this question:
Tracey then spoke about the importance of how the town looks and the impact that this has on people’s lives. We mocked up these photos to highlight how Hartlepool could look if people worked together and implemented some changes.
“Tonight, in Hartlepool, the Jones family. Watching Hartlepool Community News.”
Community commissioners then took to the stage to perform “Bogglegox”. A skit in the style of the popular TV show Gogglebox. They played an average family from Hartlepool, and sat on their sofa tuning into Hartlepool Community News. A channel hosted by two highly opinionated, abrupt and brash news presents offering skewed and biased facts and figures about Hartlepool and how many fantastic opportunities are available for people who ‘aren’t taking them’. The family proceeded to react to the news programme and shed some light on what it’s really like for people and how the media misrepresents people. The purpose of this skit was to bust some popular ‘myths’ about people living in poverty and how the media demonises and stigmatises people.
The full recording of this will be available soon.
Next up to share her truth was Georgina Bayliss.
“I left school at 15 with no qualifications due to my mental health. I then moved to Hartlepool at 18 and at 20 I decided to go to college & study towards becoming a psychologist, I paid my way through 2 years of college & 3 years of university while working 2 jobs, doing volunteer work & caring for my disabled sister while living in an abusive household. I graduated from university with a 2:1 in Counselling Psychology then managed to land my perfect job which would support me through my further training to gain my master’s & my doctorate degree.”
Following Georgina was Shannon Rutter.
My name is Shannon and I’m a mother to two children and unfortunately, when my youngest was born I was in a relationship that was no longer safe for me and my children and our lives were in danger so we had to escape to Hartlepool to start a new life.
We found a home that was cheap enough to move into but unfortunately, that meant no time to check out the area or anything about where we were about to move, now after a year of being there I realised this wasn’t a good place for my children the things they were seeing and hearing even from the children that lived near I didn’t want them being exposed to any of it!”
Amy from Youth Voice Hartlepool shared a fantastic presentation of the 10 things they believe young people need in order to succeed.
Following this we had another song titled “Higher Than The Sun” by Andy Palmer.
Andy grew up in Hartlepool and began his career singing in the local clubs around the town, in his 30s he moved to London to continue with his music career as there was more opportunities available down south. Andy has since been back to Hartlepool and played at the tall ships events, he promotes his music on Youtube, but since being invited to be part of this our launch he has been inspired to release his debut solo single “Higher Than The Sun” and will be playing at The Cavern in Liverpool on 24th May.
The video that accompanies the song was filmed in the 60s in Hartlepool, a suitably retro inspired snapshot of a bygone era.
Community Commissioners got back on stage one last time to close the show with one final message:
Get to know our community commissioners and read their realities below:
A full video of our launch event will be available to watch soon.
New commission launches in Hartlepool to tackle poverty- Hartlepool Mail
Hartlepool Poverty Truth Commission Launched- Hartlepool Borough Council
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