“Nobody has a voice – only those in power at the unemployment services. With one strike of a pen they mess up your lives.”

Positively or negatively, services have direct impact on people’s lives and this means that the people working in services, regardless of position, have a relative degree of power. Power isn’t necessarily a bad thing either. Having the power to change something for the better and using such power to do so, is something we should all be striving to do in our lives. Where power is problematic, is when it is distributed in vastly inequitable ways. It is problematic when people making decisions – those with the ‘pen’ – make such choices at a distance from the people whom those decisions affect. It is problematic when this void leads to decision-making without empathy and a prioritising of process over people. Ultimately this leads to poor decision-making and ineffective services. Our work across the UK and Europe involves gathering stories about how people experience the world. 

Over the last couple of years, we’ve noticed a concerning trend amongst a significant proportion of people’s stories when they are talking about experiences of services. These stories span different communities, countries and sectors and collectively they have shown us that we need to ‘rehumanise’ services and put people back at their centre. In many instances, process has replaced common sense, and protocol has replaced humanity. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this need to re-evaluate how our services function has never been greater. Physically we may be more distanced than ever before, so we must work harder to build connections at a human level. In short, we must step out from behind the spreadsheet and connect at an emotional level in order to move forward. This briefing therefore argues that services should focus on the building of relationships, not the building of systems.

Part of my role at PVM is to manage an exciting European project called Concrit. 

The aim of the pan European project is to create new educational tools to train, teach and empower communities. Specifically, concentrating on critical thinking and the construction and de-construction of narratives through digital storytelling. The aim being to strengthen the self-confidence of the learners, empowering them to grow in self-confidence, find their own collective voice and to strengthen a sense for local action.

Last week, Concrits second Trans National Partnership meeting took place, it was hosted in the fair port city of Gydnia, in Poland. It was great to catch up with partners and although I attended online, I imagined myself enjoying the sea breeze and maybe a poroggi (delicious Polish dumpling) or two. 

Despite the meeting being blended (online and in person) it went very well using a number of platforms, such as Jitsi and Zoom. We also used the virtual whiteboard application Miro Board. This is an excellent tool to collaborate on and to share information and ideas.

During the meeting we found out what specific group each partner will be working with. There are a varied mix of groups, including; parents and families, homeless people, people with mental health issues, migrant workers, older people in a remote rural setting and an urban neighbourhood. 

An important element of this project is to conduct a thorough, useful and inclusive needs assessment for each community. Part of my role is to design this. During the meeting we collectively looked at it and made some tweaks and changes to it, using the Miro board. 

The plan now, is to work with our communities to discover what their needs are, what learning gaps there are, if any. Then we will design specific inclusive learning paths for these specific communities, developing them and then testing them out when we meet again at the training labs in December.

Watch this space.

Kath Peters – PVM Concrit Project Manager

Last week we held our second Institute of Community Reporters (ICR) catch-up. The catch-ups are all held online as our members are in various locations across the UK and Europe, and are a 1-hour ‘hello’ and news sharing event.

At the catch-up we were joined by Shelley from The Men’s Room in Manchester. She shared with us how they had been using digital storytelling and lived experience as part of an arts project that looks at ‘what stops us from being well?’. It was great to see Community Reporting being used in this creative way and pushing its development in new directions. Other people on the call felt inspired by this and started to think about how they could adapt how they use Community Reporting too. Result!  

Sarah from the People’s Voice Media team also shared an update on the new Community Reporter site. It’s currently nearly ready from a technical perspective and over the next couple of months we will be bringing the design up to scratch. We are going to try and make it look similar to the current site but enhance it’s usability a bit. The key thing with the new site is that it will work better on mobiles… HURRAH! We should be launching it Dec/Jan time… but this is just phase 1… Next year we will work on enhancing the site further, to make it more usable and accessible. We will be running some sessions to help us in this task – so watch this space, we’d love it if you could give us some ideas!  

There was even time for people on the call to discuss projects they were currently working on that involved storytelling and get some help and advice from one another. We’d love to see more of this informal sharing and support at future sessions… so thanks to everyone who contributed and got involved in the chinwag.

We hold two catch-up’s a year, so save the date for the next one… full agenda and booking link will be available in the coming months. Catch-ups are open to members of the ICR and also non-members too!

*Save the date for the next ICR Online Catch-Up – Tuesday 9th March 2021, 2pm – 3pm (UK time)* 

The CoSIE project is investigating different ways in which public services across Europe can be co-created. In Spain, Valencia Activa and UPV launched the Co-Crea-Te co-working space in January, 2019. Co-Crea-Te offers working space and professional mentoring services to people that are looking to become self-employed. As part of this project, the People’s Voice Media team have been working with Valencia Activa, UPV and the Co-Crea-Te entrepreneurs to use Community Reporting to explore their experiences of the pilot and in setting-up new businesses.

The stories gathered explore a range of topics including:

• motivations for becoming an entrepreneur
• challenges entrepreneurs have experienced when establishing and running their ventures
• what has supported the entrepreneurs on their journeys
• reflections on co-creation and its links to innovation

Looking specifically at what has helped the Co-Crea-Te entrepreneurs, we discovered that not being alone at the start of your venture was key to people’s success. The entrepreneurs discussed how having supportive mentors, as well as peers at the Co-Crea-Te space with whom they could bounce ideas off, were vital components in creating a sense of community and stopping them from feeling isolated as they set-up their businesses. More so, co-creation and collaboration between people was fostered at the Co-Crea-Te space and this has helped the entrepreneurs immensely. As one entrepreneur stated, “co-creation is fundamental because without a creative environment it is impossible for things to grow and develop”. Click below to read a feature article on the stories.

In July I took part in online training in ‘Digital Storytelling for Non-formal Education’ as part of the Eurospectives project. It was originally going to be delivered in Copenhagen but because of Covid-19 it was delivered online. The training was designed by the partner organisations as part of a new curriculum for facilitators in non-formal education. The training ran for 5 days and each day a different area was looked at and delivered by a different partner organisation.  

The training allowed me to learn about new methods in delivering digital storytelling. It explored how it can be used in different ways and in different contexts. We learned how to use digital storytelling in campaign work and how to capture the ‘lived experience’ using digital technology. As well as the practical side we also explored the theoretical side; looking at why storytelling is important, how to establish the context in which you work, the best methods to approach different groups and how to create and measure impact. 

The online platforms that were used were effective and each session was well delivered with expertise and knowledge relevant to the subject area. I particularly like the use of break out groups in Zoom as it was great to be able to discuss in pairs or smaller groups and then feedback. I really enjoyed the interactivity and listening to other people’s views and experiences. There were also some interesting and useful digital platforms that we used and I will use again.