About

Interpreting the world around us is difficult, so people often rely on narratives in an effort to make sense of it. Narratives can be defined as a ‘collection or system of related stories that are articulated and refined over time to represent a central idea or belief’. They come from innumerable sources and influences. Some are deeply ingrained in us by our media consumption, while others emerge from our lived experience.

Some of the strongest held narratives in the United States are about poverty—narratives that drive public imagination and attitudes toward people experiencing it. Many of these narratives lead to misunderstandings about poverty and its causes, and result in misguided social policy, such as implementing work requirements in order to receive benefits. The false “culture of poverty” narrative—the belief that poverty is driven by individual fault rather than circumstances outside a person’s control— is also pervasive in various spheres of American life. In reality, living in poverty and the resulting conditions of chronic scarcity have deleterious effects on people. So in order to effectively tackle poverty, policies, programs, and products must be designed with the realities of this context in mind. 

Because narratives are the lens through which we view and judge the world, they also shape how we interact with it: what positions we take on policy, how we vote, and how we treat people in our communities. To create meaningful narrative change, local organizations and community members partnered to reimagine narratives about poverty and instill new narratives that reflect reality into effective social policy and program design.