What is Merging Knowledge?

The name 'Merging Knowledge' was given by Moraene Roberts, an ATD activist in London, to reflect what happens when two streams merge into a river: they can never again be separated. Each stream is mixed with the other, and both rush forward more powerful than before.Imagine if policy writing worked this way.  Imagine if it started with people facing social exclusion and poverty sitting down and thinking together with policymakers, business leaders, social workers, and teachers. They might not have the same way of speaking or thinking, the same life experiences, or the same perspectives on the issues at hand. To bridge the gaps, we'd need a process to level the playing field and help different groups understand each other. But how much more powerful and effective would policy be if it were based on and tested by such different forms of knowledge as life experience, research, and business theory?In Boston this year, working alongside the University of Massachusetts Boston's Center for Social Policy we spent nine months running just this kind of exchange, bringing business leaders and community activists together through the Merging Knowledge process. 

Merging Knowledge

Merging Knowledge is a methodology developed over decades of work alongside people living in persistent poverty that makes the honest exchange of ideas between people of different backgrounds possible.  By initially dividing participants into peer groups and later bringing everyone together to discuss subjects relating to poverty, we create an environment of mutual respect and trust that allows a real exchange to happen.In the words of one of the business leaders who participated in the program, “When the two sides come together to communicate and share ideas, we’re better able to create solutions that tap both sides of knowledge and create more informed decisions… [The process] shows the deep knowledge of each of us and underscores why this collaborative approach should become the norm for decision-making.”The impact for the activists with a lived experience of poverty is just as powerful: “The most important things for me are: opportunity to create empathy, not sympathy, opportunity to break stereotypes or assumptions on both sides [...].”

A Transformational Journey

Merging Knowledge creates the kind of dialogue that is so often missing in our society.  As one of the community activists said, “Once you have experienced the Merging Knowledge process, it is impossible to continue to think of the people who live in poverty as the exclusive source of the problem, or yourself as a person marked by poverty as invisible to those more fortunate than you. And whether you are advantaged or disadvantaged, this inclusive way of working together chips away at the notion that your relationship to poverty is a lifelong condition from which there is no escape.”Reflecting on his experience, one business leader wrote: “My participation in the Merging Knowledge Process has in some ways been a transformational journey. The experience has enabled me to connect with the issue of poverty in an intimate, personal way [...] Meeting with the Constituent Advisors (CAs) has been an opportunity for me to connect and interact meaningfully with people who have personally confronted the stark realities of poverty and social exclusion."This transformational journey bringing the knowledge of people from under-resourced neighborhoods to society continues in Boston and elsewhere. In New Orleans, we recently began a Stoop Talk project, getting neighbors together to discuss common issues facing them on one of their stoops. Most Merging Knowledge projects start with these smaller, more informal groups. Then when the group has chosen a subject to examine more deeply, we expand to add another group of people with different insight and experiences of that subject into the conversation.Hopefully we will be able to continue to develop these projects in the future!--Merging Knowledge was the heart of our September fundraising appeal - if you would like to support projects like this, you are always welcome to donate at any time. Sign up for our mailing list if you'd like to hear about further fundraising initiatives.