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.

This week marks a significant moment in the ongoing COVID-19 Inquiry, focusing on the Care Sector from 30 June to 31 July 2025, as part of Module 6.

It is crucial that we do not forget the immense challenges faced during the pandemic — especially by those working tirelessly within care settings, as well as the deaf and disabled communities and their carers.

We want to extend our deepest thanks to all those who are giving evidence this week, including many of our colleagues and friends. Their dedication to advocating, influencing policy, and sharing lived experiences shines a vital light on the realities of the pandemic. It’s these voices — the people at the heart of the crisis — that hold the key to understanding and learning from this moment in history.

At People’s Voice Media, we are proud to have contributed to this important conversation through our work exploring the experiences of deaf and disabled people and carers during COVID-19. Our report and video testimonies reveal the resilience, challenges, and strength of communities often overlooked in mainstream narratives.

We invite you to read our full report and watch these powerful videos. By listening to and sharing these lived experiences, we help ensure that future policies are truly informed by those they impact most.

The lessons of COVID-19 are still unfolding, but one thing is clear: the stories of people matter. Let us keep listening.

Explore our report and videos here:  

• #NationalCareForum
• #NCF
• #SocialCare
• #CareSector
• #CareProviders
• #CareQuality
• #SocialCareSupport
• #CareWorkforce
• #CareReform
• #AdultSocialCare

A Blog Post by Jacqueline Darlington – Carer, Mum, Community Equipment User

There’s a quiet power in bringing people together. Recently, I joined a brilliant knowledge exchange filled with people who get it—carers, equipment User, prescribers, commissioners—all with one shared focus: community equipment.

What stood out wasn’t shiny new gadgets. It was people. People talking about co-production, timely access, and how the smallest things—like a properly placed grab rail or the right seating—can make the biggest difference.

As a mum to Joshua, who relies on equipment every day, and as someone who uses it myself, I know equipment is about choice, control, and dignity. It’s about staying in our own homes, living gloriously ordinary lives, and not feeling like we’re doing it alone.

Someone at the event said, “It’s the peer support and solidarity that keeps me going—knowing I’m not the only one navigating this.” That stayed with me.

Sharing our lived experiences isn’t just powerful—it’s essential. It’s how we reimagine a future where people like us help shape the systems meant to support us. Manufacturers, commissioners, prescribers—listen to our stories.

What next? We’re not sure. But what we do know is: we’re coming back together. And we’ll keep raising our voices until the system hears us.

“Equipment matters because people matter.” – Isaac Samuels, 2024

Find out about Co-Production on the TLAP website linked here.

Head over to the Community Reporter Website to see the Equipment Matters Film and explore the full set of stories – including Jacqui’s!

Want to discover what Gloriously Ordinary Lives are doing in the world of support? See how they are building a movement that is working to check whether or not someone who might need some support is getting to live the life they choose and the support they get is helping and not getting in the way. Check out their site here.

See what Medequip have to say about their involvement in this work on their page.

Earlier this year, the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) released their 2025 Parks and Greenspaces State of the Market report. In it, they reported that 80% of councils believe parks are being disproportionately affected by budget cuts despite 90% recognising that lack of investment in these spaces will have health and social impacts. They also report a drop in the number of councils who believe the public should have free access to all parks.

With this in mind, we have writen a Policy & Practice Briefing that presents insights from lived experience stories about the role of parks and green spaces in people’s wellbeing, sharing policy and practice recommendations that local authorities can implement.

The evidence that has informed this briefing has come from Community Reporter stories from people who regularly access – or would like to access – parks, green spaces, and other public natural settings. We have looked at 29 stories gathered across various projects, as well as independently, between 2019 and 2025.

The briefing will be supported by an online Knowledge Exchange event, held on Monday 30th June 2025, 12pm to 1pm. You can register for the session using Eventbrite, by clicking here or on the button below.

This work is supported by Esmée Fairburn Foundation.

Systemic racism continues to underpin the experiences of people from Global Majority communities in the UK, yet they are not listened to. This is highlighted by contradictions between the lived experience of racialised people, and the claims of the previous government that systemic racism does not exist in this country.

With this in mind, and in partnership with the Co-Production Collective, we have writen a Policy & Practice Briefing on the lived experiences of racism in professional settings, and the way in which they are not being listened to or truly heard. This is symptomatic of predominantly white organisations, operating in predominantly white spaces, continuing to uphold the status quo by believing that simply being ‘not racist’ is enough, when they need to be actively anti-racist. 

The briefing presents insights from the often-unheard experiences of people from Global Majority communities in the workplace. Based on the 37 stories gathered from people from Global Majority communities in 2024, we found that systemic racism is prevalent in many professional spaces. Global Majority voices are routinely not listened to or heard by white peers, with racism in the form of microaggressions and tokenism creating a culture of power imbalance. Based on these insights, the briefing presents practical recommendations for employers – specifically those working in leadership or HR roles, as to how they can ensure Global Majority voices are heard and the manifestations of systemic racism are addressed in their organisation. 

The briefing will be supported by an online Knowledge Exchange event, held on Monday 24th March 2025, 12pm to 1pm. You can register for the session using Eventbrite, by clicking here or on the button below.

This work is supported by Esmée Fairburn Foundation.