Evelyn D

Hi. Just answering the big question of the week, thank you. I think that I having been on the project from the beginning. This feels really like we're in a really good place. I love the opportunities that come with the project, and it feels really important that we're sort of recognize that we all bring in different skill sets to create a collective experience of low income and poverty.



But our responses, and our experiences, are still different, and that is really helpful, I think, when you're working to South England with large groups of people, it can really balance out your own situation and it can really balance out how you feel and how you deal with things. There were teething problems at the beginning for me. There is obviously a power imbalance, and I think that acknowledging that, you know, in part, we can't change that—that is just the nature of what we're doing. You know, there is a paid team of researchers who are in a better position than we are, largely.

But I do believe, as well, that there are people on the project and on the research and stakeholders team, who have had either direct experience of what some of us as participants are going through and what I've been through. Or know someone. So, I think it's like not we're not as different as it might look to the outside, and it feels really important that we trust people and the process. And also feel psychologically safe to speak out if something isn't working, right? And I do think, largely, we sort of get that, really. This is really balanced in the project.