TRACEY HERRINGTON Poverty campaigner and community leader, Thrive Teesside
Described as a ‘pivotal leader’, Tracey Herrington works at Thrive Teesside, an organisation in Hartlepool supporting people experiencing poverty. She brings their lived experiences to those in power, insisting that people who live injustice understand it best. Tracey grew up in poverty herself and lives in one of Hartlepool’s most deprived wards. ‘As a family, we struggled financially and for years I felt blamed and judged for circumstances I found myself in.’ Becoming a mother marked a turning point. ‘I was worried constantly about food, bills, school uniforms. That’s when I began questioning the systems keeping us in perpetual deprivation.’ Tracey works with community members facing inadequate social security, debt deductions and stigma to make real change in their lives. ‘I see social injustice every day, including the way women are treated, and it’s what I work against.’
Her work spans grassroots projects with children and other people who face socio- economic disadvantage, to speaking at the UN in Geneva on the right to social security. ‘Accepting that my experience and knowledge were valuable was life-changing,’ she says.
ABOVE
Detail from a German poster calling for a gathering of women on 8 March 1914 to support women’s suffrage © Fototeca Storica Nazionale/Getty
‘My belief is
people can make a difference – communities are stronger together’
Through Poverty2Solutions, a coalition
of grassroots anti-poverty groups, and the APLE Collective, which ensures people with lived experience shape policy, Tracey creates spaces for those most affected. She facilitates the Hartlepool Poverty Action Group, which oversees the Hartlepool anti-poverty strategy, and is contributing to guidance on socio- economic duties under the Equality Act. Named one of the Big Issue’s ‘Changemakers
of 2025’, she also helped launch the Hartlepool Poverty Truth Commission. ‘My belief is people can make a difference – communities are stronger together.’
SPRING 2026 AMNESTY 25
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