The Birmingham Poverty Truth Commission #2 (BPTC#2) was commissioned by the Birmingham City Council’s Public Health team and delivered by Thrive Together Birmingham. A PTC aims to create long-term change by fostering dialogue, empathy, and collaboration between individuals with lived experiences of poverty and those with the power to influence policies. By bringing together people from diverse backgrounds and forms of knowledge, a PTC seeks to develop inclusive and informed decision-making processes to address systemic challenges. This process involves establishing honest and open relationships between Community Commissioners and Civic Commissioners, sharing personal stories, identifying key issues, and working together to find solutions

The evaluation found that BPTC#2 demonstrates the power of fostering dialogue and collaboration between those with lived experiences of poverty and those in positions of power. By putting lived experience voices at the core of its work, the commission has contributed to personal transformation, influenced policy and strategy development, and fostered a city-wide shift toward a more just and equitable approach to addressing poverty.

Looking to the future, the evaluation team recommended that interested parties aim to design programs with intrinsic mechanisms for co-enquiry, co-design, and co-production to empower community commissioners in systems redesign. And to aim to embed sustainability through sharing learning, promoting the PTC model as widely as possible, and to further highlight its successes and impact to policymakers and practitioners.

You can read the full evaluation report here: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50342/public_health_reports/2955/inclusion_health