We have a number of very sharp and clear memories of the early days of the PTC, beginning of course with that first meeting in our sitting room. Paul from the US, so keen and enthusiastic, struggling to get across his ideas, in part because of his deafness, but mainly because he had difficulty with the Glasgow accents of the group of people with lived experience of poverty who were assembled! And the members of the group equally struggling to get the hang of what he was proposing! But it was well worth the struggle - and then there were the follow up meetings, as you worked with people to help them find ways of sharing their experiences of living in poverty these were wonderful evenings, it was a huge privilege for us to sit in on them. 

Then came the big meeting in the City Chambers - my goodness, what an event! The presentations by the members of the group. so powerful and so articulate. The anxious wait while the so-called “powerful people” - politicians, clergy, media people, and so on - withdrew to consider their response to what they had heard. And when they came back - and didn’t say “Thank you, we have listened to what you have to say, and we will see what we can do” - but instead said “That was amazing - please can we meet with you, and talk about what we can do together” - so powerful, and so appropriate, and the real start of the PTC. 

A special memory was Martin’s speech at the end. In effect, as we remember it, what he was saying was something along the lines of “If the Civil Rights movement in the States had been led by well-meaning white people, it wouldn’t have worked - but it did work, because it was led by African Americans. and that made all the difference.” And the obvious point he was making - poverty can really only be changed by a combination of the real experts - i.e people living in poverty - and those who have the power to make the necessary changes. Us - not Them. Together, in co-operation, if possible, rather than in confrontation. 

Our next memory is of the three working groups that emerged - on Knife Crime, Media, and Kinship Care - and some of the meetings we were able to sit in on - particularly on Knife Crime, with the Violence Reduction Unit, and the stories about how they, as a result of the PTC meetings, helped to turn round the whole approach of the police in Glasgow to this issue, seeing it more as a problem of health and social issues rather than just as a matter of criminal justice - hardened Glasgow cops coming out of houses in areas of poverty . . . in tears at what they had seen and heard. (And the Glasgow experience on this issue spreading through the UK . . .!)