Participatory Practices Training

“People with a lived experience of poverty must be part of the decision-making process in creating solutions — as legitimate, equal partners, whose voice and input carry as much weight as those traditionally looked to for solutions.”

— Maryann Broxton, Coordinator, Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty Research 

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With the participation of people with direct experience of poverty as fundamental, ATD Fourth World has developed expertise in participation, research, policy analysis, and advocacy. With this expertise, ATD Fourth World trains not only people in social professions, but also others who know they must engage people with direct experience of poverty but do not know how, such as in non-profit organizations, think tanks, and policy-making institutions.

Participatory Practices Training sessions demonstrate how the Merging of Knowledge methodology is used to transform power relationships, including those in policy making and safety net practices. The Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty (MAP) three-year participatory research project and its resulting report is also used as a base in the training.

This training focuses on:

  • Poverty in the United States for people who live it every day: how the dimensions of poverty interact; the social and cultural factors that cause and perpetuate poverty.

  • How to set the conditions for the meaningful participation of people with a direct experience of poverty; how to design meaningful dialogue and decision making with power equally distributed around the table.

  • Facilitation guidelines and tips: general and specific designs to learn how to think together; the importance of mindful language.

  • Best practices going forward: a self-reflective review based on an advocacy, research, and organizational structure.

This training has been conducted with: 

  • The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

  • The Center for Law and Social Policy

  • The Aspen Institute

  • The Vermont Department for Children and Families Office of Economic Opportunity

  • The Board of Health for the city of Medford, Massachusetts

“The training from ATD Fourth World provided our team with a conceptual foundation underpinning the Merging of Knowledge approach, as well as accessible and practical tools for integrating it into our own work. It was energizing, and challenging, and transformational. I recommend this training for anyone seeking to think more deeply about new models of achieving change that build from—and are accountable to—the people this change is intended to serve.”

— Rachel Black, Associate Director, Financial Security Program, at The Aspen Institute 

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Phase 1: Reach out & Be present

“If you are at the table with people with lived experience of poverty, share the power and make room for their voice. And if you are there and they are not, demand that they be there alongside you.” 

— Maryann Broxton, Coordinator, Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty Research, at the United Nations Commission on Social Development 2020

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In all projects, ATD Fourth World reaches out to the people most impacted by poverty and has developed an expertise to do so. But without a network and the relationships to transform the situation, there is a risk of being limited by only being with people experiencing poverty. People in power must also be reached out to and given opportunities to learn from the expertise of people with lived experience of poverty and to partner in finding solutions.

 

Phase 2: Build individual capacity & community

“I realized how validating and affirming the ATD research process has been for so many people, in addition to creating an arsenal of policy tools. As a person who works in politics and policy, that moment encouraged me to recommit myself to listening first and prioritizing collaboration.” 

— Nora Bent, Legislative Aide for Massachusetts State Representative Christine Barbe

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People with first-hand experience of poverty design and lead ATD Fourth World’s Participatory Practices Training sessions. The trainers provide the trainees with concrete tools to develop their skills and build their capacity to engage meaningfully with people with direct experience of poverty.

To create the type of community needed to eradicate poverty, ATD Fourth World’s Participatory Practices Training recommends certain conditions that create community between researchers and residents of a low-income neighborhood, for example. The training shows how these conditions lead to the researchers being more available, thinking differently about people’s time, earning trust, and in other ways effectively working with the people in that neighborhood.

 

Phase 3: Change the narrative

“The best way to start building working relationships with people in poverty that aren’t purely transactional is by understanding people’s reality versus your own or public perception of that reality. In the MAP research, one social practitioner described people in poverty as being invisible. But participants with lived experience of poverty described how every aspect of their lives was up for scrutiny —  by policy makers, service providers, and the public alike.” 

— Maryann Broxton, Coordinator, Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty Research

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Social policies and practices that are based on incomplete knowledge cannot be fully effective. By introducing the Merging of Knowledge methodology, ATD Fourth World’s Participatory Practices Training demonstrates an analytical approach that takes into account the different types of knowledge that is needed to understand poverty, including the knowledge developed from lived experience. When knowledge from different sources comes together in a way that is fruitful for each of them, an analytical approach to poverty can be translated into effective policy and practices.

ATD Fourth World’s Participatory Practices Training also suggests and introduces more inclusive language. When organizations and policy agencies, including national think tanks, start using this language, it creates ripple effects at the level of the whole United States.

 

Phase 4: Grow our reach with activism

“We initially were introduced to ATD Fourth World through the MAP report. The work they have done with us on setting the conditions for lifting up the voices of people with lived experience has had a meaningful and lasting impact on the way we do our work.”

— LaDonna Pavetti, Vice President, Family Income Support, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

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ATD Fourth World’s Participatory Practices Training supports people to be advocates and agents of change. Institutions that are large, established, and standardized take a risk by opening this door to participation. Merging of Knowledge asks them to rethink what they know and to develop new ways of being with people. The impact has already been seen in how trained individuals are trying new ways of collaborating with people with lived experience of poverty, and in how their organizations are now examining ways to make internal cultural shifts that will be more open to and inclusive of first-hand knowledge of poverty. This is new, different and difficult, but the result is deeply transformational.

 

“ATD Fourth World’s training hosted by Maryann Broxton was absolutely amazing! She presented to our entire organization along with a few other partners and truly opened the door for us to have conversations more broadly across the organization about engaging people with the lived experience of poverty as partners in our policy work. Both sessions were executed amazingly well, and she received overwhelming positive feedback from multiple people at the organization. We would highly recommend their trainings.”

— Parker L. Gilkesson, Policy Analyst, Income and Work Supports, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)