Life is complicated. We all know that instinctively, and yet when it comes to sharing stories, we don’t always capture that complexity very well. There’s a tendency to over-simplify stories, including in the media. In particular, research in 2020 found that the media as a whole are not good enough at reporting and showing the complexity of multiple disadvantages, that they often focus on single aspects rather than the inter-connected challenges, and that the voices of people with direct experience of multiple disadvantages are missing from their own stories. That research called for more collaboration between media, people with experience of issues, and charities.
This new series of stories is an attempt to take that advice on board in a local, manageable way. YorkMix, the Lived Insights group in York and the national charity Church Action on Poverty have worked together with five people in York who have experience of some acute difficulties in life: poverty, anxiety, food insecurity, homelessness, drug use, the criminal justice system. They share stories that are rarely heard when people talk about York, and their insights show where systems could be changed for the better.
