This is the question posed by an Eramus + project called UNICORN that PVM are involved in. 

Well, in truth most third sector and non-profit organisations are often too busy working on the ‘coal face’ to put the time into audience building. But we all know how important it is to cut through the overwhelming noise of social media and reach the intended audiences.

Effective audience development can help third sector organisations thrive rather than just survive. However, audience building is very time consuming and needs specific skills, methods, and tools to make it effective.

PVM are working alongside Crossing Borders, Denmark,  Mine Vaganti NGO- Italy, VENSENYA – Germany,Comparative Research Network – Germany, and Change maker in Sweden to create a roadmap that third sector organisations can use to help implement and develop 4 specific areas.

• Audience design
• Storytelling and marketing (message building)
• Audience building
• Distribution. 

The aim of UNICORN is to produce a roadmap that supports organisations to get to know, find and address audiences and their needs, and to build trust and grow a community.

It was refreshing to meet up in person in with all the partners at the end of November in the wonderful city of Copenhagen where Crossing Borders have an office. We were able to continue to co-create the roadmap and start to design training that will happen in Berlin at the end of Jan beginning of Feb 2022.

Crossing Borders gave us a warm welcome and it was great to be in their homely office in the centre of Copenhagen. Surrounded by some superb wall hangings by the artist Anne Hedvard from 1977, that have powerful messages that are unfortunately still so relevant today. And, to meet the team and hear about the exciting and crucial projects that they are currently working on.

Kath Peters – Unicorn PVM project manager

Since September People’s Voice Media have been working on a new project with volunteers and community members from across the different areas of Manchester.

The project is aimed at using lived experience storytelling to build and enhance meaningful relationships between healthcare professionals, the VCSE sector and communities experiencing health inequalities. There is also a focus on COVID-19 and the vaccination roll out, but the intention is that techniques adopted can be used in different ways in the future. The approach taken will use elements of the Community Reporting methodology to support the activity.

As part of the project, people with existing connections with communities in Manchester experiencing health inequalities have been trained in how to gather lived experience stories around the topic of COVID-19 and the vaccination rollout from their community. They have also taken part in workshops covering how to share these stories – or extracts from them – within their communities to help initiate and hold conversations about health.

Participants who took part in the initial story gathering training went away and gathered 3 stories from individuals in their communities, utilising the digital skills and storytelling practices they had developed to engage with people and start conversations. In the second workshop they learnt about story curation and mobilisation, developing their own plan on how the stories could then be shared within their communities. They are now in the phase of distributing the stories in order to encourage conversations around the topics of health and COVID-19.

The project will run until December 2021, with the final workshop focusing on the key learnings that have emerged from the project and what impact it has had on the communities involved.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and the PVM Blog for future updates on the project!

Every year PVM have 2 meet ups with the Community Reporters. This is a chance for PVM to update the Community Reporters with news, opportunities, and developments and to find out what they have been up to and to get feedback from them. 

In September we had our second meeting of the year. The meet up took place online and we update the attendees of the work we have been doing developing our anti-racist commitments and the actions that we are taking to ensure that they are part of PVM’s everyday work, so they won’t be just words without substance.

Actions that we have taken so far –

• using anti-racism as examples in our Responsible Practice training
• increased the diversity of our board members
• increased the visual representation on our website and in the visual content that we gather, use and share.

As well as updating the Community Reporters it’s also a chance to gain feedback. This was positive and powerful with people saying how important it is to have a place of support and solidarity for people to come together to discuss, offload, and support each other. This brought about the idea of creating a regular support group. It was just the beginning of an idea, but we shall be exploring it further.

We also talked about the feedback, reflections and actions from the ICR conference that took place in the spring and discussed how we can take these ideas forward to shape next years conference.

The next online meet up for the ICR will be Thursday 24th of March 2022 from 12:00 – 1:00pm

Sign up through Eventbrite here.

Kath Peters – PVM Project Manager

Like communities all over the country, the residents of Fitton Hill, Salford and Stockbridge Village have been hit hard by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns. Lockdown has been a negative and difficult experience for many people and the isolation and lack of social contact has impacted upon their wellbeing. However, the stories also reveal how people have adapted their ways of working and socialising, and continued to support one another throughout the crisis. Indeed, many of the residents tell us that they believe the pandemic has brought them closer to their neighbours. COVID also impacted on people’s health and wellbeing in other ways, by restricting their access to exercise and the outdoors, and sometimes by suffering from the effects of the disease itself.

Living through a pandemic has been difficult for everybody, and the major impacts on freedom, socialising and work have affected everyone, but they haven’t affected everyone equally. Some people without access to green space and exercise facilities have struggled to maintain their physical and mental health. A lack of groups and ways to connect socially has left many people feeling isolated, bored and desperate for connection. However, the pandemic has for some people had positive impacts in that it has brought them closer to their immediate neighbours, allowing them to forge new social relationships and mutual support networks. It has also created an atmosphere in which volunteering in the community has flourished. The challenge will now be to ensure that the community values and friendships that were created amongst hardship can be supported to continue as part of the recovery and reopening as the vaccine programme allows society to open up once again.

Want to explore more? Then listen to some story extracts that have informed this insight briefing by clicking on the links below:
• Impact of COVID-19 Story Extract 1
• Impact of COVID-19 Story Extract 2
• Green Spaces Story Extract

Residents, community workers and For Housing staff shared their experiences of living and working in Fitton Hill, and overall gave a positive impression of the area. People particularly praised the friendliness of their neighbours and said that the green spaces and landscaping of the area enhanced their wellbeing. Community organisations like the Reel and the Salvation Army bring people together to support one another. Some problems were highlighted, particularly issues with crime, disorder and vandalism to the local park.

Overall, residents’ stories about life in Fitton Hill were positive. The friendly community and green spaces enhances residents’ wellbeing. People feel well-supported by community organisations in the area and get involved with them. Having housing that meets their needs and access to a private garden supports residents to keep themselves safe, comfortable and well. Residents are happy living here, though crime and vandalism are concerns that have a negative impact on how safe and enjoyable people find the area.

Want to explore more? Then listen to some story extracts that have informed this insight briefing by clicking on the links below:
• Life in Fitton Hill Story Extract 1
• Life in Fitton Hill Story Extract 2
• Life in Fitton Hill Story Extract 3