Katrina Robson’s story: helping families in Barrow

I like the idea that people who live here can have influence. We have a right to expect better 

I have worked in public services in Barrow for most of my working life. A lot of people move to the Lake District, but it feels different when you were born and brought up here and have a working-class background. This is my community.  

Barrow is a special place. People look after one another. That’s why We’re Right Here speaks to us; because understanding and support is here, has always been – and the people that live here know it, we just don’t get asked. 

In 2012, I helped co-design Love Barrow families a project with 20 families in our most deprived wards, trying to do something better and different for people. We asked what would work for them – and we saw brilliant outcomes. It was a pilot, and when the funding was pulled, we set it up as Love Barrow Families, community Interest Company, with some of those families taking the lead. I’m with Love Barrow Together now, working with organisations and the council to change things for people facing multiple challenges.  

I like the idea that people who live here can have some influence and have a voice. People have suffered. We have a right to expect better.