WHAT IS STIGMA FREE FUTURES?
Stigma Free Futures is a body of work created by a Design Team of people with lived and living experience of poverty stigma, alongside practitioners, researchers, organisers and storytellers.
We came together to explore how poverty stigma works — how it is produced, how it feels, how it shows up in systems and institutions, and what needs to change to end it.
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POVERTY STIGMA IS NOT INEVITABLE
It is produced — through systems, language, policy, services and everyday interactions.
It makes people feel that poverty is their fault, rather than the result of political, economic and social systems.
It causes harm. It can isolate, silence and make it harder to ask for support.
It turns shame inward and divides communities that need to move together.
HOW THE WORK BEGAN
This work began with people who really wanted to do it.
Sarah Campbell, who was Head of Participation and Advocacy at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), brought the Design Team together in different ways.
Most of the team applied to take part. Others were invited to bring particular experience and perspectives.
This included Imogen Tyler, whose work on stigma and poverty helped shape some of the thinking this project builds on, and who undertook a literature review for the team; Sarah Whitehead, who shared her experience of community organising; and Alana Avery, who facilitated and coached the team.
When we started, we thought one way to test stigma-free principles would be to work with a large national organisation.
We hoped that if these ideas could work there, they could help bring about wider change.
We met people who believed in the work and wanted it to succeed.
But we also learned that support for change is often tested when priorities shift and difficult decisions have to be made.
That experience changed how we thought about where the future of this work sits.
WHAT WE LEARNED
It led us to a different conclusion.
The future of stigma-free practice will be shaped by the people and communities most affected by stigma.
If these ideas are going to make a difference, it will be because lots of people take them forward — not because any single organisation champions them.
This work is not something to protect or hold onto. It is something to use, adapt and develop.
So let's take this work forward - together.
WHAT THIS MEANS NOW
So take these ideas.
Borrow them. Build on them.
Make them better!
