It has its roots in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of post-apartheid South Africa, when victims of the bloody and cruel regime were encouraged to tell their stories.

Now the model, partly conceived by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is to be used in Glasgow to help tell the city's own story of social divide - that between rich and poor.

While, on the face of it, the links between the South African system of state-run racism may have little in common with acute levels of poverty in Scotland's biggest city, campaigners say there is a similar need for the disinfranchised to be given a voice to directly influence decision-makers.

This will be achieved at Scotland's first Poverty Truth Commission on March 21, which follows a number of similar, successful events in New York.

It will bring some of the most disadvantaged people from Glasgow and its surrounds to the City Chambers to tell politicians about their life experiences and to secure a commitment to change.

Darren McGarvey is one of the people who will take part. At 24, he worries he looks more like 35, having left home young following the death of his alcoholic mother, after which he endured a difficult relationship with his father.

Mr McGarvey lived with no home of his own for years and slept where he could, eventually suffering a serious mental breakdown. He faced enormous struggles but became passionate about the need to help young people from bad backgrounds live more positive lives.

This is now his life's work: giving strength and opportunity to those weakened by poverty and exclusion.

He said: "Glasgow is a community where three-quarters of the population are being left behind. Nobody grudges the fact that people work hard and make a nice life for themselves.

"But there needs to be an understanding where nobody has to live below a certain level. Through the Poverty Truth Commission, we want people to accept that poverty is everybody's problem. That is how things are going to change."

There is no shortage of poverty statistics to paint Glasgow's picture. In some postcode areas in the east end, 60% of children live in workless households, almost 50% of adults of working age are on incapacity benefit and life expectancy can be as low as 54.

The contrast with some west end postcodes is staggering, where life expectancy is over 80, fewer than 5% of children live in workless households and there are virtually no benefit claimants.

In Scotland as a whole, almost 840,000 adults live in poverty, which is officially judged to be a household with income less than 60% of the national average income. In 2006-07, this was £377 a week for a couple with no children before housing costs, such as rent and council tax, are paid. A couple living in poverty will survive on £226 a week, from which housing costs are paid.

It has been said that poverty is a career for lots of well-paid people, but for people such as Mr McGarvey, nothing will change by politicians and civil servants talking about poverty.

It is about those who live in poverty getting the opportunity to assert influence over how decisions are made. While it is about more jobs, more successful education policies, and improved health, it is also about changing the way poor people think about themselves.

Mr McGarvey said: "First we need to establish that poverty is a mindset. In Glasgow, you can build an Olympic-size swimming pool in a community and still young people will stand outside and throw stones at it.

"It is about negative self image. Some people from the truth commission went to Malawi and there they saw that the people there had nothing in a material sense but had an amazing sense of community and decency which we do not have in communities here."

Breaking that mindset comes, according to Mr McGarvey, by generating confidence in poorer neighbourhoods - a task which he appreciates could take decades to achieve.

"We need people to stop thinking this is just how it is because you are poor. It is a generational thing too. People pass on traits, whether they be emotional or psychological, even down to three generations of one family being out of work. If the parent doesn't have confidence, how can they instill confidence in a child?"

Now working at Netherton Community Centre in the west of the city, Mr McGarvey is using creative writing to open up the voices of a group of young men who he met hanging around on the street during one of many visits to the area and it is hoped they will appear at the Poverty Truth Commission later this month.

Martin Johnstone, of the Church of Scotland Ministries Council, introduced the concept of such an event being able to address some of the issues in Glasgow after meeting Paul Chapman, one of the architects of the Poverty Truth Commission, during a trip to New York.

Mr Johnstone said: "How do you overcome the struggle against poverty? Surely the sensible thing to do is ask those who live with poverty, rather than asking people who know about the issues in their heads."

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