During the last couple of weeks in March, some of the PVM team took part in a training lab designed as part of Co-Engage, one of the Erasmus Plus projects we are a part of. The project aims to contribute to the development of co-creation skills, enabling citizens to become social innovators. Based on the exchange of experiences and learning through co-creation, the consortium’s method will bring in light know-how and competences, engaging citizens for innovation and creativity and, through this, creating bridges between diverse sectors and fields of activity.

Held online, the labs aimed to get us thinking about co-creation practices and how these could better engage citizens as social innovators. Hosted by German partners CRN and Future Fashion Forward, the labs took on the topic of textile waste in the fashion economy and had us work in groups on different scenarios that would encourage citizens to engage with this issue and work on finding solutions, such as a co-created social media campaign aimed at getting people to organise clothes swaps.

While it was a shame that we could not travel to Berlin for the training, as had originally been planned, it was great to see all of our partners and participants all together and working on some fascinating ideas.

Some of our projects, particularly our European ones, are catching back up after being delayed for so long due to the pandemic. One of these is Co-Engage, an Erasmus+ project designed to contribute to the development of co-creation skills enabling citizens to become social innovators. Part of the project is a series of labs, the first of which takes place at the end of March in a digital form.

We’re looking for a volunteer to attend from the comfort of their own home, with the chance to network with organisations from across Europe as well as learning a thing or two about co-creation practices. A member of the PVM team will also be in attendance. Details of the lab are below:

Topic: Co-discovery.

Overall Goal: Experimenting and testing old practices and new models, focussing on generating participation of citizens as co-implementers and activating people.

Lab Umbrella Topic: Fashion Consumption and Textile Waste problem in cities.

Organisers and facilitators: Future Fashion Forward and Comparative Research Network.

Day 1 – Monday 22nd March 2021 / 9am to 12pm GMT

Day 2 – Tuesday 23rd March 2021 / 1pm to 4pm GMT

Day 3 – Wednesday 24th March 2021 / Self-learning day

Day 4 – Monday 29th March 2021 / 9am to 11.30am GMT & 1pm to 3.30pm GMT

Day 5 – Tuesday 30th March 2021 / 1pm to 4pm GMT

Each of the days presents opportunity for learning, co-creating and networking with a blend of presentations and group work on a variety of challenges, with a fuller agenda being available nearer the time.

A small accessibility bursary is available for each of the days to help meet access costs.

If you are interested in volunteering to take part and have availability on the specified dates, email Sarah at PVM by Thursday 11th March.

During the coronavirus pandemic, North Kirklees has suffered a very high number of deaths compared to the other areas of the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust. In some cases, two members of the same family have lost their lives to COVID-19, and the wider repercussions on physical and mental health have been numerous.

Between September and December 2020, People’s Voice Media, the Trust, and other local partners, with funding from NHS Charities Together, worked with a group of people from North Kirklees in order to gather stories of lived experience from affected BAME communities in the area, using the Community Reporting methodology. We trained these individuals as Community Reporters and, as part of this training, they have learned different storytelling techniques to enable them to share their own stories and capture stories from across their peer networks. Working with People’s Voice Media, they have curated these stories into a set of findings that we have laid out in an insight briefing which you can download below.

The report presents a picture of an area struggling under a disproportionate amount of bereavement and hardship where, as one storyteller puts it, “everyone is grieving at home on their own.”

Both in Yorkshire and nationally we know that coronavirus has further exacerbated existing health inequalities. Local insight and work on earlier projects tells us the pandemic is having its greatest impact on more deprived and/or excluded communities in places such as Calderdale, Kirklees, Barnsley and Wakefield. Locally and nationally, there is also evidence to illustrate the disproportionate impact that coronavirus is having on our BAME communities. People’s Voice Media has already started some of this work thanks to community and charity funding in Calderdale and North Kirklees, but our new project, in partnership with Creative Minds and the Association of Mental Health Providers,  will target the most deprived areas in Barnsley Wakefield and South Kirklees.

The project, Mental Health Sustainability, is a focused piece of work to understand the specific needs of the people within these communities, to understand what health and wellbeing support is needed. The project will see us train a network of around 45 Community Reporters from those communities to gather the experiences of the people who live there, and their thoughts on creative activities which would support them.

From the experiences of communities we will then work with our partners to develop culturally sensitive creative projects to meet local needs.

Watch this space…

In Calderdale, coronavirus has further exacerbated existing health inequalities. Local insight and data has illustrated that a range of socio-economic factors that impact on people’s health and wellbeing have worsened during the pandemic. To understand these issues further, People’s Voice Media has been working with local organisations and people to use Community Reporting to gather people’s lived experiences of life during the pandemic and explore the impact of it on their wider health and wellbeing. 

Between September and December 2020, we have worked with a group of people from Central Halifax who are from the communities most affected by COVID-19, with a specific focus on engaging with different BAME communities in the area. We trained these individuals as Community Reporters and as part of this training, they have learned different storytelling techniques to enable them to share their own stories as audio and video recordings, and capture stories from across their peer networks. Working with People’s Voice Media, they have curated these stories into a core set of findings that are have been evidenced in an insight briefing. Key topics within the stories include systemic racism, faith and spirituality, outdoors and the environment, creativity, isolation, advocacy, support services, and the political and global impact. The insight briefing sets out the key findings derived from these stories and links this learning to a set of recommendations aimed at supporting the commissioning of health and wellbeing interventions for the area.