Supported by The Robertson Trust
Taking Action on Rural Poverty is a project working with local people and partners to find new ways to reduce the rural poverty premium: the higher costs in money, time and opportunity for those living rurally.
Across Aberdeenshire and Argyll and Bute, we developed Citizens’ Panels, hosted events on key local issues, trialled two anti-poverty interventions, campaigned, and took these photos depicting the day-to-day reality of rural poverty.
People living in rural Scotland and who had experienced low incomes and higher outgoings were brought together in two regional Citizens’ Panels. They met each month to discuss barriers and solutions to the rural poverty premium.
Panellists took part in a photostories project: to choose something they would like other people to understand about the cost of rural living, and to capture that in a picture and a short narrative. It gave everyone the ability to connect directly about their experience.
15 people from Aberdeenshire and Argyll and Bute collaborated to develop the exhibition. They took part in workshops, gave each other feedback and shared learning as they went. The result is captured here, alongside their thoughts and feelings about the process.
The rural poverty premium isn’t just about needing more money to access a good standard of living. It is about additional time to travel, or to navigate services not designed for rural communities; or where opportunities for jobs, education and leisure, are more limited. These challenges often intersect.
Images reflect a wide variety of topics, but often show how one thread weaves through another. Panel members chose to focus on topics including; the cost of energy, home heating oil, costs and access to fresh and nutritious food, accessing transport including Motobility schemes, housing, accessing adequate healthcare, employment, private water sources, isolation, and benefiting from green energy in the same way more accessible places do.
While challenges were surfaced from living on low incomes in rural areas, it was clear that people loved living in beautiful, caring and empathetic rural communities.
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