Poverty Aware Practice
Following on from the development of our Hidden Dimensions of Poverty educational resource app, ATD Ireland have also developed a ‘Poverty Aware Practice’ module in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin. We have also delivered this module at Galway University, UCD and Social Work conferences. We hope to continue to bring it to other groups in the future. This module is based on the Hidden dimensions of poverty international research and is led by ATD community activists with lived experience of poverty and socio – economic discrimination. The module is comprised of testimonies based on lived experience, group exercises, a presentation and an interactive discussion and Q&A with the class. The aim of these sessions was to provide trainee (and practicing) social workers with a more dynamic and holistic understanding of the lives and daily experiences of those who are experiencing poverty, people they will be working with in the future. Further, these sessions are an important stepping stone in breaking barriers between groups who rarely have the chance to authentically engage with one another in this way.
In 2024 ATD Fourth World launched a research report based around the findings of a family advocacy project. Read the full report here.
The experiences and knowledge outlined in this report relate strongly to those shared by ATD Ireland Community Activists within our Poverty Aware Practice module with social workers and students.