And that’s it… another annual Institute of Community Reporters (ICR) conference has come and gone, and what a blast we had. A BIG thank you to everyone who made it possible – those working behind the scenes running the tech, people who led workshops, folk who braved the livestream and to everyone who got involved in the workshops and online discussions. Without YOU it simply would not have happened.

As part of the day, there were some livestreams. The morning livestream got things off to a great start with from Maff from Camerados, who brought us the sunshine from his lovely garden as well as meaningful insights from his own stories of lived experience. As well as Maff other guest speakers discussed the impact and power that lived experience storytelling has had on them. The morning discussion set the tone for the rest of the day. If you missed it, you can watch it here: 

The team at People’s Voice Media then led a workshop called people were able to have conversations about what good lived experience storytelling practice looks like. People came up with some practical and insightful ideas that we aim to put together as a manifesto, (of sorts), that we can bring into practice here at People’s Voice Media and influence others to adopt as well. So, watch this space as this is developed further!

There were also 6 satellite workshops running through the day that other people involved in storytelling delivered. They were all online except one which was facilitated in a wonderful outside space. These workshops explored different areas of lived experience storytelling. From, ‘Stories of the Storytellers’ that looked at the theme of ownership of storytelling, to, ‘An Invitation to a Brave Space’ which focused on how to make spaces safe for authentic storytelling to take place, these were just some of the themes.

People’s Voice Media were also back on the workshop front with a second event that was about exploring what a Day of Action might look like around lived experience… and was it a good idea in the first place. Various ideas about what this might look like were discussed. Some people explored doing ‘story jams’ which hopefully could be happen around a real campfire, or if not a virtual one. Short films with stories were mentioned and stories in different languages.

Other ideas that emerged around a Day of Action were:

• A campaign about the value of stories as a legitimate form of data and a valuable tool for learning and development
• A day in which we speak truth to power! Love this!
• Positive stories of change – when people power works well 
• A campaign that flips the idea of ‘hard to reach’ on its head and tries to engage professionals who are ‘hard to reach’ or not currently involved in discussions around lived experience and co-production 

All of these are seeds of ideas that could be developed, and we will be getting in touch with workshop attendees to see if people want to take this forward, or any of this discussion forward in anyway. 

The afternoon livestream brought all the workshop leaders – the People’s Voice Media crew and the satellite workshop leaders – together, to reflect on their sessions. You can watch it here:

I think it’s fair to say that the conference generated healthy discussions, ideas and reflections that will steer us in the right direction for future practice. Bringing people together and listening to insightful reflections of practice and who wholly support the way forward was inspiring and re-energising. There was a sense of hope that the Future of Lived Experience is in safe hands. Thanks a million for joining us, and keep in touch!

Kath Peters, PVM.

Today we had our last project meeting for Eurospectives 2.0. 

The project started in 2018 bringing together different partners from Greece, Spain, Germany, Denmark and the UK to explore ways to use Digital Storytelling in non-formal and formal education. Activists, community facilitators, teachers and educators, creative practitioners and NGO’s, worked together testing out different methods, approaches and digital tools to produce a new curriculum with Digital Storytelling as its main focus. 

At the start of this project the world was quite a different place. With the onslaught of Covid 19 we found that we had to rely on digital tools to ensure that we were able to continue to co-create and collaborate, and with some adaptations we succeeded. Also, with the UK leaving the EU, collaboration with our European partners was even more important, making the project even more crucial and relevant.

The curriculum covers, Storytelling for Wellbeing, Collective Storytelling, Storytelling for Teachers and Storytelling for Activists. We hope that this curriculum will be a guide for facilitators, teachers and trainers to champion Digital Storytelling and to encourage people to find ways to tell their own stories.

Over this last year people’s well-being has been tested and many people are suffering. With countries clamping down on democratic rights it is crucial that citizens are able to discover ways to become resolute and actively participate in positive change from the ground up. 

If ever there has been a time to use digital storytelling to create positive social change, then the time is now, and here we have a useful tool that can support people to become storytellers for positive change.

Kath Peters – PVM’s Project lead for Eurospectives 2.0

We are looking for people to run local workshops to explore the ‘Future Of Lived Experience Storytelling’.

APPLY NOW

We want to commission 5 workshops that explore the topic of ‘The Future of Lived Experience Storytelling’ with different groups of people to be part of the 3^rd annual Institute of Community Reporters (ICR) Conference on the 2^ndJune 2021.

At the conference, we want to open-up a conversation about the future of lived experience storytelling and explore things such as:

• the role of lived experience in achieving social justice 
• how we and other organisations can work better with stories and the people who share them
• the types of spaces that are secure enough for authentic storytelling to take place.

Your workshop should respond to the above – or some of the above – in some way and contribute to this conversation. 

The content, location, style, who the workshop is for and pretty much the whole shape of the workshop is up to you, as long as it is in-keeping with the overall topic of the conference. 

Key Details

• Your workshop should take place between 11:30am and 3:30pm on the 2^ndJune 2021.
• Your workshop should be at least 1 hour long.
• The workshop leader needs to be available between 3:45pm and 5:00pm to join an online livestream to share with the world the key ideas/discussions that took place in the workshop.
• Your workshop should create an equitable space for people to be a part of the conference’s conversation. 
• Your workshop should ideally – and where safe – take place offline in a specific geographical location (this is not essential and back-up plans should be made in case it needs to move online).
• The fee for each workshop is £250.00 upon receipt of an invoice.
• Each workshop leader should send a little bit of feedback post-workshop to us (i.e.; who attended, what was discussed/learned, what worked well and what didn’t).

To apply to deliver a workshop, please use this online form

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rKlApPkA0tN0L5MTdf7ah3IggPTCe4yb8o_Pi6riGgQ/edit   to tell us about the workshop you would like to run. 

The form asks for: 

• Contact details of the organiser and social media details (if any)
• A short outline of your workshop and what topics you will be exploring 
• Where it will be held
• Who the workshop is for
• How you will ensure the space is inclusive and welcoming
• A short back-up plan in case COVID-19 means the workshop has to go online
• A short statement about how your workshop embeds our core values – https://peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/about/ 

The deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday 3rd May 2021. We will contact all applicants to let them know about our decisions by Friday 7th May 2021. For further information contact Kath at kath@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk  #ICRCon2021

Last week I had the pleasure of spending time exploring different methodologies and practices around critical thinking and the construction and de-construction of narratives, with partners and practitioners from different European countries. This is part of an exciting European project that PVM are collaborating on, called Concrit. 

Concrits aim is to create new educational tools to train, teach and empower communities. Specifically, concentrating on critical thinking and the construction and de-construction of narratives 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.

Last week’s Peer Review training was meant to take part in Berlin but for obvious reasons it was online instead. And of course, online training and co-production can’t ever take the place of being together in person, but it has to be said it was still a fruitful experience.

We used the online platform Jitsi and the virtual whiteboard application Miro Board. Jitsi was quite unpredictable, getting frozen and kicked out if the internet wavered, however, I found that once again the Miroboard was an excellent tool to collaborate on and to share information and ideas.

And share ideas, we did. We tried out a variety of practices and then applied them to real life settings and then reflected on their effectiveness. The next step is to develop them further, re-designing and adapting them to suit different settings and groups. The most effective will be chosen to add to the learning paths that we are developing.

I’m looking forward to seeing the partner again in the new year for more sharing and creating together.

Kath Peters 

This week it is European Local Democracy Week (ELDW). This pan European event is targeted specifically at local and regional authorities (local communities, cities, municipalities, provinces, regions). The general aim is to promote and foster democratic participation at a local level throughout public initiatives which involve citizens.

“Local democracy: building trust. Co-designing local democracy together with citizens and practicing open government” is the leading theme of 2020.

Coinciding with this week’s events we had a planning meeting today, to co-create training for the EUROSPECTIVES 2.0. This is an Erasmus Plus project that we are working on with other European partners 

This is inspiring Erasmus project brings together knowledge, experience and skills from a number of EU organisations, from Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy and the UK.  Getting our heads together and co-creating a Digital Storytelling curriculum for non-formal and formal educators, facilitators and activists. 

Despite the pandemic we are moving forward using online platforms, and today we had a meeting to plan blended training for the new year. We are all itching to get started and test out our modules and sessions. 

#ErasmusDays  #ErasmusDays2020  #ErasmusPlus #Europe #edchat #edtech #edpolicy #edreform #teachers #openaccess #OER #STEAM #STEM #artsed #elearning #classroom #teachers #cpchat