We are really proud to announce that our fantastic friend, colleague and leader Isaac Samuels OBE has been nominated for Disability Personality of the Year at the Empowerment Awards. Huge congratulations, Isaac!

The Empowerment Awards are Britain’s most inclusive awards that celebrate changemakers and trailblazers in the disability community. The final ceremony will take place at the Emirates Stadium on 20th March 2026.

Isaac says: “I’m still slightly stunned if I’m honest. It feels like a massive honour and a real moment to pause and reflect on the journey so far.”

“Being shortlisted means a lot because it recognises over 25 years of work alongside disabled people, communities, and partners across health and social care. Together we’ve pushed for co-production, challenged exclusion, supported suicide prevention, and worked to make sure people with lived experience genuinely share power in decisions that shape their lives.”

“Anyone who knows me knows this has never been about titles or awards. It has always been about people, relationships, and creating spaces where everyone feels heard, safe, and able to show up as themselves. Receiving an OBE in 2025 was already beyond anything I imagined, so being a finalist here genuinely knocked me sideways in the best possible way.”

The final stage now comes down to a public vote, so we want to spread the word and make sure Isaac gets recognised for their work.

If you would like to vote for Isaac, simply follow these steps:

• Go to: https://empowermentawards.org/voteforfinalist
• Sign in with your email
• Select ‘Disability Personality of the Year’
• Vote for Isaac Samuels!

Best of luck Isaac in the awards, the whole People’s Voice Media team are rooting for you!

As some of our Community Reporter Network members will know, we host regular Community Reporter Catch-Ups where we share practice, news about our projects, and hear about what people across our network are up to. December’s meet-up was extra special as we were joined by a group of Community Researchers from the University of Reading, who have been working on a project about food, community and equality. They showed us the new handbook they’ve written together, which is a guide to becoming a Community Researcher. In this blog, Community Researcher Vandy Butcher shares her experiences of working as a Community Researcher and on putting together the guidebook.

How to become a Community Researcher – this book is a guideline we’ve created to help you decide if this is what you want to do, in a fun way! As I was put in the deep end and did not know what I was getting into, I hope it can be useful for you.

This book is about people who care about the community.

People in the community want change in all sorts of ways. Being a community researcher, what we do is to help get evidence and to share advice and to support the community. It’s not just about food, but what we found out will open up ideas on how to manage food better, maybe to make changes in your life.

We also looked at the policy in the food industry, how things are prepared, processed, the labelling on products, and getting offers which sometimes are overlooked when you do shopping.

I found working as a community researcher is very enjoyable, it has opened my eyes to a lot of things. I’ve made friends near and far with other community researcher visiting their towns, their workplace and sharing knowledge that helped to make this book.

I hope you enjoy reading it as I have enjoyed making it.

by Vandy Butcher.

Thank you Vandy for writing this blog to share your work with us, and thank you to all the Community Researchers who met with our Community Reporters back in December. We see lots of similarities between the roles and look forward to future opportunities to collaborate and share our learning and experiences.

To celebrate LGTB+ History Month, our Head of Partnerships and Practice Isaac reflects on their experiences of storytelling and Community Reporting as a queer person.

Through storytelling, we work to stand up for social justice, build communities where everyone feels included, and give a voice to people who are often not heard or listened to.

For some considerable time, we’ve been working with stories: listening, learning, and sharing the experiences of real people. As a storyteller, my experiences don’t just come from the work I do. They come from who I am, especially as a queer person living in the world. LGBT+ History Month reminds us that our identities and experiences are part of our stories. They shape the questions we ask, the connections we make, and how we listen to others.

We’ve been learning and improving the way we capture people’s experiences. We work with Community Reporters, trainers, local people, policymakers, and others. Together, we collect stories, listen to real experiences, and bring them into conversations that matter. Each story helps us see the impact of our work and understand the change we need to make.

Recently, I had the chance to hear someone’s story about their transition. They described it as “turning from a caterpillar into a butterfly.” Listening to them really helped me understand, in a human way, what our brothers and sisters go through during this journey. It’s a story of courage, growth, and transformation.

This month is about celebrating LGBT+ History – the ways our similarities and differences make communities stronger. Being queer affects how I see storytelling, yes, but it also helps me make space for other experiences, notice voices that might not be heard, and share stories that build empathy, understanding, and real change.

Storytelling is like a mirror and a bridge. It shows who we are and connects us to each other. It helps us see how our differences can start conversations, how our shared humanity can build trust, and how every voice matters. The stories we tell, the spaces we create, the conversations we have are all acts of love and acts of justice.

For LGBT+ History Month, let’s remember that storytelling is more than a skill – it comes from lived experience. It’s about listening, putting people at the center, and creating spaces where everyone feels seen and heard. It’s about understanding people’s needs and helping make positive change happen.

We’re proud of the work we do and excited to keep learning, growing, and sharing stories that matter. At the heart of everything, it’s love – the love of community, of justice, and of giving everyone a voice.