The second newsletter to be published as part of the CONTINUE project is available now!

See below for the full PDF which contains updates on the local Conversation of Change events and the youth training in Vilnius. If you’d like to view the stories which have been gathered so far as part of the project, you can do so on the ICR website here.

The European COC event took place on Thursday the 7th of April and saw partners and young people come together online to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on young people’s lives on a pan-European scale. Stay tuned to our blog for updates on the learning that emerged from this event and future project activities – you can also visit the CONTINUE Project website here for more information.

Earlier this month PVM hosted the CONCRIT TNP in Manchester, followed by a four day training in Liverpool.

On International Women’s Day PVM and other project partners visited the Liverpool Museum to take part in ‘Women In Action, an event hosted by Collective Encounters. As part of the event women presented stories of their lived experience in a hybrid performance engaging with the audience in the room and over Zoom. It was a perfect fit for the CONCRIT project and set the tone for the week of training, in which learning activities and tools were tested and developed.

The aim of the CONCRIT project is to create new educational tools to train, teach and empower communities that are deemed to be marginalised. Specifically, concentrating on critical thinking, the construction and de-construction of narratives and the development of digital skills through digital storytelling. The aim being to strengthen the self-confidence of the learners, empowering them to grow in self-confidence, find their own collective voice and to strengthen a sense for local action.

You can take a look at the case studies that have been studied as part of the project so far in the document below:

Stay tuned for future updates!

Last week PVM took part in a two day training workshop in Vilnius, Lithuania as part of the CONTINUE E+ Project.

Young mentors from across Europe came together – including Georgia, a Project Worker with PVM – to learn about mentoring and social actions. The training was facilitated by Active Youth and Artemisszio and included a range of interactive activities that helped broaden the mentor’s understanding of how to develop social actions with young people. The workshop consisted of step by step activities which helped them explore social issues, identify what impact these issues have, then produce their own social actions to combat the negative effects.

Hate speech, inequality in the workplace and discrimination towards refugees were all topics that the mentor’s explored. They even got the chance to put their ideas into practice, demonstrating their social actions in Vilnius town centre! The social actions ranged from street theatre, flyer campaigns and public discussions and helped the mentors to gain valuable experience, which they can now pass on to the young people they are working with in their communities.

The next stage of the CONTINUE Project will put the learnings of the Lithuania training into practice. In the case of PVM, Georgia will be working with young people from Gorse Hill Studios in Trafford. They will work with Georgia to develop their own social action project, based on the findings of the Community Reporting sessions and Conversation of Change event that they have been involved with earlier in the project.

We’re really looking forward to seeing what emerges from the next stage of the project, remember to stay tuned for updates!

Earlier this month a 2-Day training programme took place in Manchester as part of the ‘Not Another Co-Production Project’. Covering the fundamentals of Community Reporting and exploring how this method can be used as a tool for co-production the event was delivered in person at the St. Thomas Centre in Ardwick.

This is a 3-year project funded by the National Lottery that will see People’s Voice Media and Ideas Alliance work together to move co-production from a buzz word into an embedded practice across different areas in England. We want a future where policy, research and service design are informed by local people and where collaboration is the heart of how things are done. This way of working is messy, fun, challenging, but can really make a difference to those who are willing to give the time and energy to it.

The training was a mixture of presentations, individual/small group/whole group activities and discussions, reflection tasks, practical recording activities and Q&A.

As part of the day, we shared our own experiences of co-pro and here’s some of what chatted about:

• Co-production can lead to new ways of thinking and new ways of doing thing – different people’s perspectives ask us to think differently
• In larger organisations and institutions it can be hard to do things in the way you’d like to do them if you don’t have the authority to make certain decisions – sometimes the people who are advocating and practicing co-production struggle to get their bosses to see its value and share or handover their decision-making powers 
• A big part of co-production, is reflecting and critiquing – who has control, who have the power, who is setting the agenda?

Since September People’s Voice Media have been working on a project with volunteers and community members from across Manchester. In February an online evaluation session took place in which people fed back their experiences working on the project.

The project has been delivered in collaboration with Manchester Local Care Organisation and a variety of VCSE organisations from across the city. Local health development coordinators from MLCO have helped support representatives from the VCSE organisations both in and out of the training sessions. Last week HDCs and team members from MLCO came together to provide feedback on their experiences of the project, reflecting on the aims of the project. Below are the key themes and questions that emerged in the evaluation session:

To utilise the knowledge & expertise of VCSE organisations working in Manchester neighborhoods

• The people involved in the project reflected the communities that need more representation
• The range of VCSE orgs involved in the project meant a diverse range of stories emerged
• The trainings provided opportunities to build connections between Manchester VCSE’s

To train staff & volunteers as Community Reporters

• Trust & confidence levels were impacted by the amount of organisations and representatives in the training sessions
• The practical aspects of the training helped to solidify people’s learning
• People would benefit from learning how Community Reporting could be used in different contexts outside of the project

To build relationships & develop trust between communities & healthcare professionals

• The trainings offered a chance to build relationships between VCSE organisations
• The payment offered for taking part in the project strengthened links between MLCO and community organisations as people feel their contributions are valued
• Difficult to measure cause and effect in terms of developing relationships and building trust in this context

To gather, curate & share stories of people’s experiences during the pandemic to bring about positive change in local communities

• A series of films have been produced as a result of the project including voices from various communities within Manchester reflecting on their experiences of the pandemic
• Confidence levels increased in some of the people who took part in the Community Reporter training sessions
• Future potential for discussions around the content that has been created

Develop trust in public health messaging (Questions raised by MLCO)

• How could we use lived experience stories in health messaging?
• How can we adjust health messaging to reflect the complexities of people’s lives?
• How do we understand from a community perspective what matters?

The evaluation session marked the end of the project and was a great opportunity to regroup and reflect on people’s experiences. We hope the people involved in the project continue to use Community Reporting in their work in the future, and look forward to seeing how the stories gathered continue to generate conversation around the impact of the pandemic on Manchester’s communities.