Acknowledgements
First and foremost, thank you to all at Poverty Truth Community who collaborated on this project, whose creativity and courage fill these pages but always exceed words, and who continue together in the journey for justice. Thanks particularly to ‘Fiona’, ‘Kitty’, and ‘Victoire’, who steered the project with much laughter and thoughtfulness.
This project was made possible through funding from the AHRC, and I am grateful to Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities for their support in working out the details of a ‘researcher-in-residence’ position. A huge thank you as well to Anneleen Lindsay for her photography of the Connecting Stories exhibition that have provided many of the images for this work.
I am deeply grateful for the support and encouragement of several colleagues and friends. Particular thanks go to Heather Walton, for her guidance and wisdom in so many areas, and her example of working theologically with great creativity, love, and humour. Thank you to Elaine Graham for her generous support and feedback in the process, both as examiner and editor. Without Heather and Elaine, and their work in practical theology in the UK over the past decades, this kind of project simply could not have been imagined; I am truly grateful for their grit and grace in trying to create a more welcoming and interesting field. Thank you to Anna Fisk for her friendship and insightfulness, as well as her helpful feedback and keen eye. I am also grateful to Bonnie Miller-McLemore for her support and vision as editor. Thanks to Katie Cross for being a listening ear and a great sounding board for ideas, and to Scott Midson and Karen O’Donnell for their unfailing encouragement. Thank you to Meg MacDonald for listening to the ups and downs and being an incredible believer in this work. And finally, to S., my love, thank you for holding my hand through everything, except when I needed it to type.