The Learning Curve Chronicles: Dignity-First Language
- Apr 13
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 16
In this monthly blog series, Circles USA Chief Learning Officer Kris Alexander shares insights on her learning journey, sources of inspiration, and what excites her about her work. The column offers a behind-the-scenes perspective on the learning curve that drives growth and progress at CUSA as we continually deepen and enhance our mission of building community to end poverty.
Happy spring!
I, for one, am so excited to see the flowers popping up and buds beginning to open on trees here in the South. We’ve finally opened our windows to let some fresh air in! I hope y’all are all able to take some time to enjoy this beautiful time of year and feel renewed after winter.
Circles USA has a fundamental assumption that we take into everything we do, from the national level to our work with chapters, volunteers, and the public. Everyone is capable, creative, resourceful, and whole. This assumption means that we approach everyone we come into contact with, regardless of identity or situation, as a human being. By doing this, we ensure we aren’t fixing, rescuing, or even mentoring. We don’t know more than the other person. We aren’t better than the other person. And we most certainly don’t bring one-size-fits-all fixes for the other person.
Everyone is an expert in their own life.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about dignity-first (or person-first) language. This is something we discuss in our Virtual Immersive Training for Circles staff, and we apply it across the Circles Community of Practice.
Dignity-first language, at its heart, ensures that any individual—regardless of what may be going on in their life—is honored first as a human being. After they are recognized as a person, then their situation is framed as just that: a situation they have agency to change rather than an inherent characteristic.
For example, instead of “a poor person” we say “a person experiencing poverty.” This way, the individual is not defined by a single aspect of their life, but rather respected independently of their financial circumstances—which in turn empowers them to transcend those circumstances.
The reality is, a lot of the language we use has its roots in racist, sexist, classist or ableist oppressive myths. And these myths create stereotypes (e.g., "welfare queen", "illegal", “trailer trash”, “drug abuser”) that are weaponized to dehumanize and deny access to whole communities.
Using person-first language calls for care and intention in the way we discuss those around us. It is an ever-evolving process. No matter how much we work to implement this practice, there will always be more to learn because communities are continually negotiating how we self-identify and relate to one another.
Recently, I had an awesome discussion with Ashley Herndon, a Certified Addition/Drug Clinician. She works directly with people who use substances and/or have a substance use disorder. As soon as she shared her title with me, I recalled that in Virtual Immersive Training, we talk about substance use as “problematic substance use.” I asked her if our language was out of date, and she explained that “problematic substance use” is indeed the correct language; and is different from a "substance use disorder". In short, problematic substance use is anytime using a substance begins to affect a person’s daily life. However, it doesn't become a substance use disorder until the person is addicted and unable to stop on their own.
Her example was extremely pertinent to our work in poverty alleviation. She shared that unhoused individuals—person-first language for “homeless”—will sometimes use substances like alcohol and drugs to numb the pain they are experiencing. However, once they are housed, they often stop the use naturally, because the substance use was a coping mechanism, not an addiction. It is only if the traumatic experience has improved and they are healing, but aren’t able to stop using the substance, that it becomes a disorder. She went on to explain that even people who use substances we generally consider incredibly harmful (like fentanyl, meth, or heroin) are not necessarily addicted.
This understanding was a huge shift for me. While I knew that alcohol and drug use by people who are unhoused is often to numb the pain of their situation, I didn’t realize that people can, essentially, use any drug recreationally. There is no drug, dosage, or situation that automatically implies a disorder. Nor does a disorder define a person’s entire character.
This flies in the face of many stereotypes and myths about houselessness, drug use, and addiction still prevalent in our society. Some of the most common myths I have experienced include:
“Most unhoused people are addicted to drugs”;
“Unhoused individuals using drugs choose not to get help”;
“Everyone experiencing houselessness and drug use are the same”; and
“Assistance just enables them to use”.
All of these myths are not only false, but dangerous. Perpetuating them as a community affects public policy, funding, people’s access to support and recovery, and how we treat people we encounter whom we judge as “homeless”, “drug-addicted”, or both. This stigma is harmful and counterproductive to Circles USA’s mission of building community to end poverty—a goal we can only reach in collaboration with capable, creative, resourceful, and whole human beings, not stereotypes
Circles USA is dedicated to changing narratives about poverty, and narratives are language-based. Using person-first language ensures that the narratives we tell are rooted in the inherent dignity and worth of all people—one of our top five values. This is also why we invite Circle Leaders to tell their own stories. When Circle Leaders publish, speak, and share their lived experiences of overcoming poverty through Lives Transformed testimonials, interviews, keynote addresses, appeals to elected officials, and more, we are ensuring that our foundational assumption—everyone is capable, creative, resourceful, and whole—is also the narrative we share.
I strove to use dignity-first language in my work with people with autism and other special needs in my first career, and continue to do so today. Yet my conversation with Ashley reminded me that I still have so much to learn and that language, and the ways we use it to humanize or dehumanize people, is ever-evolving.
I want to leave you with some examples of shifting our language to person-first.
What terms do you use and which are new to you?
How do you practice dignity-first language?
Outdated Language | Person/Dignity-First Language |
The poor/poor person/white trash/ghetto | Person experiencing poverty |
Welfare queen | Person receiving public assistance |
Low/lower class | Low-income |
Addict/junkie/alcoholic/user/abuser/doper | Person with a substance use disorder/Person who uses substances |
Sex change | Gender confirmation/transition |
Sexual preference/choice | Sexual orientation |
Obese/Overweight/Morbidly obese | Higher-weight/larger-bodied/fat (non-judgmental) |
Illegal alien/illegal immigrant/illegal | Undocumented immigrant/person |
Third-world country | Developing country/Global South |
Non-white | Person of the Global Majority |
Normal brain | Neurotypical brain |
Criminal/convict/ex-con/felon | Person with a criminal history/formerly incarcerated person |
Broken home | Single-parent household |
Illegitimate child | Child born outside marriage |
High-functioning/low-functioning | Autistic person with [specific support needs] |
Read more from Kris on her monthly Circles USA blog, The Learning Curve Chronicles:
Building Community to End Poverty in 25 States
