Fourth World People’s University

“When I read the reports, I only read that PATH served 900 people. The report doesn’t tell you what those people go through, what they feel.”

— Cory, a New York City District Leader after attending a FWPU. [PATH is New York City's Department of Homeless Services Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing program].

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Fourth World People’s University (FWPU) is a forum where people from different socio-economic backgrounds meet and learn from one another. FWPU emphasizes the active participation of people with a lived experience of poverty and social exclusion who rarely have opportunities to speak, be heard, and come together to build on collective experiences. This collective knowledge then gives birth to new ideas and proposals for social change.

A variety of critically significant issues are explored and addressed through FWPU, such as chronic homelessness, sustaining family life within the constraints of poverty, educational challenges for children and young adults, and the stigmatization of mental health issues as they pertain to those who face the biggest barriers to security and safety. 

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Phase 1: Reach out & Be present

“Emma kept inviting me. I would make up excuses not to go. It would give me anxiety. I never had much to say even if there was a lot to say. That’s not me. She was relentless, though, and I finally went and had a wonderful time. Then I said I’d go back if I went with Emma. Then she couldn’t go, so I had to be a big girl and go myself. It felt so welcoming. It was amazing to me that they liked what I had to say and said I expressed myself really well. I never expressed myself before.”

— Stacy White, now a member of the FWPU Preparation Team who has spoken publicly at the U.N. and elsewhere 

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Each FWPU starts well before the date of the meeting. Preparation is essential to foster frank exchanges on complex topics related to poverty that will allow for new discoveries and positive changes. ATD Fourth World Volunteer Corps members are trained to hear from and work with people coming from different points of view and take lead roles in Fourth World People’s University, working closely with the FWPU Preparation Team.

The FWPU Preparation Team:

  • Is made up of people from different walks of life and experiences.
  • Ensures relevant topics related to poverty.
  • Prepares with people who will be at the FWPU, including guests who work in professional jobs related to the theme.
  • Prepares interactive activities to address key questions related to the theme.

Invited participants are people with first hand experience of the meeting’s topic and guests who have professional knowledge of the topic.

Inviting participants to share personal, often sensitive, experiences must be done with preparation and care in order to overcome anxiety and assure that each individual feels respected, heard, and empowered. The Merging of Knowledge methodology ensures the success of this facilitation.

 

Phase 2: Build individual capacity & community

“The People’s University for me is a chance for people to get together and first of all learn how to speak about issues that concern them in the community in a way that is understandable to everybody else in the audience. After several meetings, people are transformed from being angry and complaining to being able to say “we need this” and “we want to change that” in a way that officials would listen.”

— Marcia Kresge, ATD Fourth World Volunteer Corps Member & member of the FWPU Preparation Team

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The FWPU process increases participants’ capacity to advocate, individually and collectively, for themselves and their community. Overcoming poverty means building the relationships that create a safe, trusting environment where people from different social backgrounds can come together to discuss and share ideas that lead to meaningful change. To make this happen, there’s a huge investment by all involved over a long period of time.

Participants come with different experiences, different angles, on the same topic. As they learn from each other, some learn new skills and some learn how to use their skills and positions with knowledge of the true obstacles many other people face.

 

Phase 3: Change the narrative

“People’s University is a chance for guests who are professionals in the field or elected officials to hear people with lived experience of poverty. They perhaps are in their office all the time or in academia all the time and they haven’t really talked with someone who has lived experience of poverty.”

— Marcia Kresge, ATD Fourth World Volunteer Corps Member & member of the FWPU Preparation Team

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FWPU is a counter-balance to the pervasive characterization of people living in poverty as being purely in need of help and to the dynamics of oppression that place people in poverty in disadvantaged positions. One key aim of the program is to increase knowledge, among a diverse participant group, of complex social issues and the impact in people’s lives of public policy measures intended to combat poverty.

In FWPU, people find out they are not alone and develop new ways of thinking together, new insights, new discoveries about each other, a merging of knowledge: developing a knowledge that didn’t exist before that each person can then apply in their very different day-to-day lives.

 

Phase 4: Grow our reach with activism

“I’m able to stand up for my community and even if I’m someplace else, in East New York or Brownsville, when something is not right I have to speak up about it because why am I with ATD, why did I become an activist in ATD, why did I speak at the United Nations, if I don’t speak out when I’m in the street?”

— Stacy White, member of the FWPU Preparation Team 

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With each participant bringing their new knowledge back to their very different lives and workplaces, the reach of the FWPU is immeasurable and unknowable. Each teacher, each civil servant, each research assistant who was a guest will apply to their work a new understanding of the lived experience of poverty, influencing their students, co-workers, constituents, and areas of study. People who are empowered to, and practiced in, speaking for the rights of their communities will in turn empower their families and their neighbors. Invitations to attend a FWPU are extended to people in all these communities, further enriching the FWPU sessions themselves.

“Thank you, everybody, for telling your stories. For me, going back to meditation practice or just to work on Monday, it’s really inspiring what I heard here tonight because — I am sure many of you have heard this — there is a lot of burnout in this field; because of the energy output, it's very tiring. And because of the larger system, you can wonder, ‘Are we making any progress? Is anyone actually helping anyone?’ It’s been very inspiring. It reminds me why I do this kind of work and how important it is.”

— Heather, a social worker and yoga teacher, after a FWPU about mental health