Back in September, People’s Voice Media came together with representatives from Creative Minds and Huddersfield University to discuss all things #softandfluffy. So far the project has collaborated with a range of wellbeing initiatives in different locations and communities from across Kirlees, Wakefield and Stockport. The main aim of #softandfluffy has been to utilise Community Reporting, an alternative approach to evaluation, to gather stories of people’s lived experience with mental health services in order to bring about positive change to the current system. 

A team of Community Reporters have worked with wellbeing initiatives, such as Creative Minds, The Artworks, The Good Mood League, The Live Arts Cafe, Photovoice, Q Lab, Nice Guidance, to build up a body of research consisting of digital stories exploring the experiences of people engaged in creative activities delivered by each of the organisations.

The findings of the project have helped identify issues and communicate solutions to current approaches to mental health services, based on the knowledge of the people who experience it first hand. Key themes include, the flaws of the medical approach to mental health services, the concept of health encompassing mental and emotional wellbeing as well as physical health and the benefits of adapting ‘traditional’ approaches to mental health services offered by the NHS to reflect this more holistic approach. Utilising Community Reporting has helped to highlight these factors and communicate the complexities of different experiences without over-complication. The experience of Community Reporting also provides those engaged with the opportunity to open up and feel heard on an individual level, provide support to peers and in terms of the stories exploring creativity, change people’s preconceived ideas and misconceptions – It’s not just about collecting stories.

With regards to follow up events and future coordination, the team are currently working on producing a film and project report collating the findings, both of which will reflect the need for commissioners to engage and hear people’s stories. A ‘Conversations for Change’ event has taken place, which invited practitioners, team leaders and commissioners from within mental health services to listen to the research and the voices of the people they provide care and support for, in the hopes to influence a change in policy and structure. The event set out to be a conversation starter, to drive change and desire for improvement, challenging perceptions that what is thought of as #softandfluffy, is not quite so ‘soft and fluffy’ and is creating real positive changes in those that need it most. 

For quite some time now we’ve been part of the Voicitys project, which has now come to an end. As a pilot project, it aimed to “strengthen social dialogue between residents, stakeholders and policy makers in diverse urban neighbourhoods.”

The project studies four diverse European neighbourhoods: Berlin, Budapest, Manchester and Sassari through three main activities: 1) collecting and curating stories of citizens through Community Reporting (80 citizen stories) 2) collecting and analysing stakeholders’ views through semi-structured interviews (45 interviews); 3) comparing the results of the two methods and elaborating a series of policy recommendations through participative workshops and consensus meetings.

Voicitys.eu

As Voicitys was a pilot project, it was testing a complex methodology and allowed the team of transnational partners to identify problems and make recommendations. Part of the project was to put all of these findings into a handbook so that other diverse neighbourhoods can benefit from the methodology. This can be downloaded here and details the methodology and findings in full.

Earlier this month, the Our Voices team met in Berlin to define the last actions to take before the end of the project later in the Summer. With the products finalised, it was the moment to value the whole experience that lead the consortium to create a Digital Curator Curriculum, Digital Curator Toolkit and Story Curation Resource Bank.

The project started in 2016, when the consortium began to find ways to give a voice to the unheard and change perceptions within society. Nearly three years have passed since then and an innovative methodology based on the use of digital technologies to create impactful stories and promote positive change in communities, has been created. As part of this process, a new concept – that of digital curation – has been developed and pushed forward in different countries across Europe.

Funded via the Erasmus+ programme, the partners have been testing the products created and are now focused on their adaptation to different local contexts and sectors. The adaptability of the outputs has been defined as one of the main strengths of the project and each partner is currently working to tailor the products to their specific sectors and stakeholder needs. As part of this process, we here at PVM will keep delivering trainings using the products, disseminating them at events and look for new funding opportunities to expand this work further.

We hope that the methodology will keep being used in meaningful ways and if you’d like to find out more and access the products produced, then visit the Our Voices website. The contents will remain accessible and we are sure you will make a good use of them!

One of PVM’s current project involvements in Eurospectives 2.0. The project aims to create a European curriculum for digital storytelling, empowering learners and teachers.

Earlier in June, we attended the third project TNP meeting, hosted by project partners, the CFR centre. Over two days, we made exciting progress on the project and even found time to enjoy a well-earned dinner. You can read all about it here on the Eurospectives blog.

Last week we were back with the CoSIE Horizon2020 project in Valencia, Spain working with entrepreneurs to support them to tell their stories using Community Reporting methodologies.

Over two days, a group of 7 entrepreneurs joined us to explore how video storytelling techniques could help them communicate to others how they became entrepreneurs, what motivates them, what challenges they’ve encountered on the way and how they’ve overcome these, and what successes they have had. As part of the training, the entrepreneurs got to grips with video recording techniques, using them to capture short snapshot stories about their experiences as part of the Spanish pilot – the Co-Crea-Te co-working and mentoring space. They then used storyboards and mind maps to pull together their ideas about their entrepreneur journeys, before bring these ideas to life on video and with photographs. They then used basic editing skills to combine them together in to short films.

Their stories shed light on important issues about co-creation and entrepreneurship such as how people came to their ‘a-ha moments’, the value of mentoring and coaching, how to make the best use of your talents and interests, how to build effective networks and much more. There stories will be appearing on the Community Reporter website soon… so watch this space!