Oldham Poverty Truth Commission

Oldham’s Poverty Truth Commission (PTC) was launched on September 27^th, 2021 and brings together 13 people with lived experience of poverty and multiple disadvantage (grassroots commissioners) with 13 civic and business commissioners to identify key issues and co-produce solutions to tackling poverty.

The PTC is co-ordinated and managed by Action Together, the borough’s umbrella VCFSE organisation, and is facilitated and supported by the Council’s Corporate Policy Team and colleagues from the Shared Health Foundation. It meets monthly for 3 hours and grassroots and civic commissioners are encouraged and supported to meet outside of the formal meetings to build relationships. Relationship building is a central tenet of the PTC – and requires a different way of working, one that builds strong inter-personal relationships between commissioners to achieve change rather than drive change through external targets and outputs.