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.

Funded by BBC Children in Need, Future Change Makers is a 3-year project that will support young people aged 11-18 from socially and economically disadvantaged communities and youth organisations to use Community Reporting as a changemaking tool.

The project aims to provide young people and youth organisations with skills to create narratives on issues affecting their lives and communities and applying these skills to lead small-scale social action projects. As well training young people we will also run Train the Trainer training supporting youth professionals to deliver Community Reporting training in the future making it sustainable and creating a world of ‘narrative change’ possibilities. 

Alongside the training and supporting youth organisations to use Community Reporting as a changemaking tool, the project will establish a sub-network – the Young People’s Community Reporter (YPCR) network – within the existing Community Reporter network. The YPCR network will also support existing young Community Reporters who are already trained, providing opportunities for further capacity-building and consolidation of skills.

The project has started recruiting organisations for the 3-year programme. We will be kicking off with the first group, Army of Kindness in Rochdale in October. We are looking for organisations that work with disadvantaged children and young people to join us in the exciting project.

If you are interested in getting involved or finding out more, please contact Kath at kath@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk

Through storytelling, People’s Voice Media continues to champion social justice, foster inclusive communities, and drive systemic change across sectors.

Since 2020, we have implemented a comprehensive learning, impact and evaluation process that captures the voices of those engaged with our work. This includes Community Reporters, Community Reporter trainers, residents, service professionals, policymakers and other stakeholders involved in our activities. As an organisation that understands the power of stories and lived experience, our approach has always and continues to centre storytelling and human insight. Over the years we have developed our approach to learning, impact measurement and the evaluation of our work – enhancing how we drive forward our organization, deliver our strategic goals and are cognizant of the challenges we face and where changes to our approach are necessary. 

This year’s learning, impact and evaluation report covers the period of April 2024 – March 2025. It presents the methods and structure we’ve used to support our learning and synthesises the results. It helps us to learn about our work as an organisation and supports how we implement our current strategy. It has been designed to:

1. Identify and understand the impact of our work
2. Monitor and evaluate our progress towards our strategic goals 
3. Support and enhance decision-making at strategic and operational levels

Our process has been developed iteratively over several years, bringing in elements of projects, processes, and methodologies as we’ve learned and grown. We have sought to put stories and human insight at the core – demonstrating what we advocate and using Community Reporting as a key method in this process.  We have combined Community Reporting with other approaches that help us to understand the complexities of the change we are trying to make. 

If you would like to find out more, you can download and read the report using the buttons below. We’re proud of this work and are excited to share it with you.

This work has been funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Earlier this year, we teamed up with community members in Wigan to share information and skills around Ripple Effect Mapping.

Across a series of 4 sessions, people learnt about the Ripple Effect Mapping process, creating their own maps, learning how to facilitate this approach to impact measurement within their own communities, and developing skills in packaging the findings in the form of written reports and presentations.

The learning from the sessions culminated in a community sharing event, during which the group showcased their Ripple Effect Maps and shared the learning from the workshops.

The group have continued with their work around Ripple Effect Mapping and intend on using this methodology well into the future supporting the development of a range of different community initiatives.

Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming Community Reporting Project in Wigan!

Throughout August, we have delivered 2 days of Community Reporter Training as part of our ongoing work with Well Doncaster.

Community members from across the region came together to develop new approaches to lived experience storytelling. They learnt about story gathering techniques, including dialogue interviews, snapshot stories, and personal monologues, and how different recording methods and approaches can be used to capture these elements. We covered the basics of photography, audio recording, and how to capture videos with the people they intend to interview. The group also explored what responsible practice looks like, bringing in their own knowledge and expertise into the discussion, helping to equip them with the ethical tools to approach storytelling in a safe and responsible way.

The group will now work towards gathering a set of stories exploring community members’ experiences with living through and accessing cancer services in the local area, receiving a five-hundred-pound grant per person for their commitment and contributions. These stories will be uploaded to the Community Reporter Website to help build a picture of current cancer care services in and around Doncaster. Looking ahead, as part of the Well Doncaster Project, we will be co-hosting a Conversation of Change Event, which will see community members, reporters, and cancer support sector workers come together to discuss what changes need to happen to improve the current system.

Stay tuned for more updates!