Speaking for ourselves: the truth about what keeps people in poverty from those who live it

The Family 100 Research Project

What stops families moving out of Poverty? There is little in-depth knowledge of what holds some families in a repeating cycle of hardship while others move on to more secure lives.

The Auckland City Mission’s Family 100 Research Project followed 100 families living in severe hardship over the course of a year, in order to understand what stops people moving out of poverty. The study was led by the Mission in collaboration with researchers from Waikato University, Massey University and the University of Auckland. The Mission wanted the voices of the real experts on poverty in New Zealand heard – those who live it day in day out – in order to find better ways to meet their needs.

100 householders with children spoke frankly with researchers every two weeks for a year with interviews concluding in early 2013. Participating families had used the Mission’s foodbanks over a significant period of time, and represent the diversity of users of this service. The aim was to reveal the private not the public story of these families. The public story is told repeatedly by these families to social services, as they navigate a vastly complex landscape to get help from agencies. The private story however is rarely heard, the story of what it’s really like to live in Auckland on a very low income. The study has revealed a picture of creativity and incredible resilience, as well as intense hardship.

I lead the analytical and written work that informed Speaking for Ourselves – the truth about what keeps people in poverty from those who live it, released by The Mission in 2014.  Speaking for Ourselves is a summary report that brings the voices of these 100 families, both individually and collectively, into the public domain. Speaking for Ourselves clearly highlights the plight of those living in poverty in their own words, along with their views on what would make a difference for them to stand a better chance to free themselves from poverty.

Graphic design by Rapp Collins.

Read the full report here on the Mission’s website.