Online event / Tuesday 2nd June 2020 / 1pm – 2:30pm

Calling all grassroots change-makers, lived experience experts, community workers, co-creation facilitators, social action catalysers and front-line public service and health and social care professionals….

Stories are powerful tools. They can be the means by which people work out their thoughts and ideas. They can help us to make sense of our lives and the world around us. They can be a way for us to communicate and connect with others. 

As part of the CoSIE project – a scheme that is piloting co-creation approaches in different public services across Europe – storytelling has been used as tool to more actively involve citizens in service design, decision-making and evaluation. It has also supported dialogue between people and institutions and between citizens and professionals.

This participatory workshop will share the learning from this project in terms of how storytelling has been applied as a tool for co-creation in different public services, and what the benefits and challenges of this has been. Specifically, the workshop will explore:

• Using stories for gathering insight, creating dialogue and supporting reflective practice
• Opportunities for using storytelling in your field and what it can add to your work 
• Barriers to working with stories and lived experience and how these can be overcome 

After the workshop, we want to package our learnings from the CoSIE into a useful format for others to access. We don’t know what this will be as yet – a toolkit, a blog or vlog series, online training activities… or all of the above – so as part of the workshop, there’ll be an opportunity for you to input your expertise and ideas into what is created. We are reaching out to our wider peer community to help us with your own knowledge to make something really valuable! 

If you wish to attend this online event, you can reserve your place here.

Instructions of how to attend this online event (including a link) will be sent out to attendees via email closer to the date. Places are limited so please only book if you 100% intend to join. 

As this is an online event, attendees will need a laptop, tablet, or smartphone with internet connection in order to participate.

As you’ve probably already guessed, last month’s Concrit TNP meeting in Poland was cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions. But PVM and our European partners weren’t deterred and we still met online using Zoom.

It was good to see everyone looking well and positive despite the grim circumstances and Zoom proved to be an excellent tool for collaborative online working. We were able to move the project onwards and make decisions about how to adapt to these challenging times. We all agreed that digital storytelling and criticall thinking for marginilised groups is even more important than ever.

If ever there is a time to share lived experiences it is now.

You can see Kath’s full ideas sheet from the meeting here.

Three weeks ago just before lockdown in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, the Eurospective meeting went ahead with the aid of Skype for the Italian, Spanish and Austrian partners.

Despite not being able to completely ‘get together’, it was a very positive meeting that moved the project forward, with partners making steps towards the co-creation of a Digital Storytelling Curriculum for Social Change.

This will be the last non-virtual face to face we will have for a while, but we had a fantastic time in spite of everything – as out photos will attest.

You can read more detail about the meeting over on the Eurospectives blog.

Well, it’s certainly been an eventful few weeks. As is the case for most organisations, COVID-19 has had a big impact for us so we wanted to update you on the steps we are taking to protect ourselves, our loved ones, our partners, our Community Reporters and everyone else we would normally come into contact with.

• We have been practicing social distancing measures since early on in this outbreak. The PVM team works flexibly and largely works from home anyway, but in line with Government advice our office is currently closed, so if you need to reach any of us, email is the best way.
• All face-to-face work on projects has ceased. Where possible, training is being delivered (and meetings are being attended) remotely. Where this isn’t possible, work has been postponed temporarily. If you are unsure how this affects something you were due to take part in, please get in touch with us.
• We are keeping a close eye on our schedule and reviewing upcoming events to decide whether they need to be postponed, cancelled or held remotely.
• As you can imagine, some of our team have been affected by school and nursery closures, as well as other household members now working from home so we’re taking flexible working to the extreme. This may mean you get emails from us early in the morning or late at night. Please remember that we respect your own work schedule and don’t expect a response until you are working yourself. Let’s not pile more stress on ourselves at such a difficult time.

Please bear with us during this time as we get to grips with this new reality along with everyone else.

In the meantime, we’re sending our thanks to the amazing health and social care workers, retail workers, delivery drivers and all of the other essential workers who are getting us through this. You have our gratitude.

We’re also sending our best wishes to you and your loved ones, that you all get through this safely and healthily. And, of course, that we can all see each other very soon.

This month, after a jam-packed end to 2019 and start to 2020, we’ve been reflecting on our partnership with The Men’s Room in Manchester having worked with them over the last few months to complete Phase 1 of their ‘What Stops Us From Being Well?’ project.

People’s Voice Media delivered a series of training days between October and January including a 2-day Community Reporting for Insight programme held at the LGBT Foundation in Manchester, a set of follow-up story gathering support sessions on site at The Men’s Room itself, a celebratory event just before Christmas and a day of story review and curation training in January. 

The celebratory Christmas event in December, was held at the lovely co-working Zeiferblat venue in Manchester, and was a wonderful chance to bring current and potential participants, staff and partners together. People’s Voice Media gave a short presentation and screened an edited video which they had created from the stories that had been gathered.

The learning from the stories which were gathered as part of the Community Reporting training during Phase 1 are now forming the basis of ideas informing and feeding into Phases 2 and 3 of the ‘What Stops Us From Being Well?’ project.

Phase 2 will culminate in an exhibition of artworks produced by participants with an accompanying soundscape of the gathered stories to be produced by People’s Voice Media. 

The learning and ideas from the exhibition and the growing archive of gathered stories will continue on into Phase 3, informing the script and performance of a piece of legislative theatre later in 2020. People’s Voice Media will also be delivering some additional training later this year, so stay tuned for updates as the project continues!

You can watch and listen to the stories from the project by searching for ‘What Stops Us From Being Well?’ on the www.communityreporter.net website.