Amplifying Voices
Changing Realities
Changing Realities parents and team outside the DfE building in Westminster after a roundtable event in March 2025. Photograph by Paul Shields.
“It was a moment that reminded me of the power of lived experiences and how, when shared in the right spaces, they can shape the future.” -Beauty, Changing Realities participant.
The Campaign
Changing Realities is a participatory online project working with over 200 parents and carers living on a low income across the UK. The project is a close collaboration between parents and carers, academic researchers at the University of York and Child Poverty Action Group. The project seeks to amplify the voices of parents and carers with lived experience of poverty or low incomes, as they navigate and survive the challenges of everyday existence. The project name reflects both the changing pressures of living on a low income in the UK today, and the socio-political changes that are urgently needed and that the group is pushing for.
The project grew from its sister project, Covid Realities, which involved almost 100 parents and carers on low incomes sharing their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the world began to unlock, it became Changing Realities, as the cost-of-living crisis and other challenges began to emerge.
“We are so thrilled to have been shortlisted for this award in the Amplifying Voices category. Changing Realities is made up of parents and carers from different backgrounds all over the UK, and this nomination is recognition that the project draws together dispersed people with a collective goal to make the future better for everyone.”
Millie Light
Changing Realities
The Change
Over the last few years, the project has supported participants to have their voices heard across a range of platforms. These include online diary entries, zine-making and other creative workshops, writing and speaking to the media, MPs and ministers, producing blogs and podcasts, taking part in large online meetings to generate ideas, attending Westminster lobby days, and presenting speeches in cross-departmental government roundtables.
Changing Realities participant, Evette, describes a recent event at the DfE on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) as “an opportunity to speak truth to power,” and participant, Shirley, condemns the discriminatory rhetoric around disability cuts. Their voices, and the voices of other parents/carers on the project, come together to demand change and to suggest viable solutions through policy reform.
The Future
Working in a participatory way means that collective decisions are constantly being made between parents and carers, researchers, and advisors about what areas to focus on. Going forward, our voices are feeding into the UK’s proposed Child Poverty Strategy, encompassing issues including social security, childcare, employment, education and SEND. The project continues to employ a range of creative approaches, striving to balance action and the drive for change with methods of care and reciprocity.
