Fairness Work
Faith in Community Dundee facilitate 2 key strands of Fairness Work: Dundee Fighting for Fairness (2019 ongoing); Dundee Fairness Leadership Panel (2021 ongoing).
Dundee Fighting For Fairness
Dundee Fighting for Fairness, or commonly shortened to DFFF, is a small collective of Dundonians with various lived experiences, networks, and influences across our city. They all have different stories to tell, but have 3 things in common:
They are all connected with, listening to, or working for different vulnerable groups in our city.
They are all passionate about challenging unfair policies, procedures, and systems.
They have all experienced some level of poverty and inequality.
They strive to change and influence policies that are unfair to the most vulnerable and marginalised in our city in these ways:
Sharing their personal stories and what would have made things better.
Proactively speaking to different local community groups and individuals to gain a broader understanding of the issues and topics that the community is struggling with and hearing what solutions would make a difference.
Collaborating with statutory partners to encourage them to listen and learn from lived experiences so that our city is a fairer place to live.
To find out more about the work of Dundee Fighting for Fairness, visit their website at: dundeefightingforfairness.co.uk
Dundee Fairness Leadership Panel
The Fairness Leadership Panel is a collective response to poverty/inequality. A Panel made up of people with lived experience and organisational representatives working together to ensure the disadvantaged and vulnerable in our city have a voice. They work to mitigate the impact of external factors, that are beyond the control of city level leaders, by focussing on where they can bring influence and real change. Panel members are not afraid of asking hard questions.
DFFF’s role in the Fairness Leadership Panel is to make sure that the Council & other Service Providers are seeking the advice and guidance of people with lived experience of financial insecurity and other inequalities.
How did we get here? Below you will find some of the journey we’ve taken that has resulted in Dundee Fighting for Fairness and the Fairness Leadership Panel…
Dundee Fairness Commissions
What is a Fairness Commission?
A Fairness Commission is a unique form of community development and empowerment.
A Commission brings together people who have been through financial insecurity and inequality with very senior managers and directors from different areas of society, however, there is no hierarchy and no agenda.
These people spend 18 months together, first listening to personal experiences of financial insecurity and the impact it has, then drawing out themes from the stories they hear.
Next they do further research in the community and with local services and organisations to get a deeper understanding about how these themes impact Dundee, and finally they form recommendations that challenge the status quo of how services and organisations in Dundee work with people experiencing financial hardships.
Faith in Community Dundee was commissioned by the Dundee City Council and the Scottish Government to facilitate a Fairness Commission in 2017-2018 and then a second one in 2019-2020 (which was extended into 2021 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic).
2017 - 2018 Commission
This Commission looked into the areas of:
Mental health
Stigma
People and money
All themes were researched through the lens of financial insecurity and inequality. To read their recommendations around how to make these areas better for people, read their full report here.
2018 - 2019 Commission
This Commission looked into the areas of:
Mental health and wellbeing
Disability
Food and fuel insecurity
All themes were researched through the lens of financial insecurity and inequality. To read their recommendations around how to make these areas better for people, read their full report here.