ABOUT
CHANGE THE STORY.
Change the Story was co-designed with people experiencing poverty to tackle stigma in everyday interactions and systems.
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Our Story
Change the Story is a campaign co-designed with people who have lived experience of poverty. It challenges the stigma that too often shapes how families are spoken to and treated, and calls on services to work differently.
Built with Families
This campaign was shaped by parents, carers, and frontline workers. Their stories and insights highlight what stigma feels like and what needs to change. By working together, we can design services that treat every person with dignity and respect.
Why Stigma Matters
Poverty stigma shows up in daily life. Families are judged or blamed for circumstances beyond their control, which harms confidence and blocks access to support, work, and opportunity.
Tools for Change
The Change the Story toolkit offers practical resources: scenarios, language guides, and reflection tools. It helps organisations start honest conversations, spot stigma in practice, and build better ways of working.
How Change the Story Began
Change the Story started with families themselves. Parents in Fife, engaging in the Making it Work for Families programme, spoke openly about the stigma they faced every day - at school, in shops, and in their communities. With support from The Poverty Alliance, they worked together to create the first Stigma Toolkit, challenging how poverty is understood and calling for change.
From there, the work grew. Capital City Partnership responded to what families had raised about stigma. With support from Making it Work for Families, we designed and delivered workshops across the region to explore the issue further with parents, carers and young people. We also committed to co-creating a practical ‘charter’ for services - work that, over time, evolved into the Change the Story Commitment.
The earlier toolkit developed with The Poverty Alliance and Making it Work for Families provided a foundation for this work.
The principles and values that shape the Commitment were co-designed directly with families who were engaging with local services such as Fife Gingerbread, Clued Up, FIRST Fife, Maximise! Early Years in Edinburgh and Children 1st in East Lothian.
The framing of the Commitment itself was informed by the expertise of Frameworks UK, ensuring the language challenged stigma rather than reinforcing it.
Change the Story is now a shared effort between families, practitioners, and partners across the region, all committed to ending poverty stigma. Together, we are working to replace harmful stereotypes with respect, compassion and dignity, and to create a future where no one is judged for the circumstances they face.