From the event we’ve produced a learning report, which you can download here and this video report that documents the day. You can also listen to an audio executive summary of the learning report here.
People’s Voice Media and Think Local Act Personal (TLAP), in partnership with Halton Borough Council, launched a Community Reporting project to gather stories from people with learning disabilities and Autistic individuals in Halton. The project aimed to explore how these individuals experience local services, highlighting what works, what doesn’t, and what can be improved. By listening to their lived experiences, the initiative sought to understand the elements that contribute to a meaningful life and identify ways local services can better support people.
Central to the project was a commitment to accessibility and inclusivity. People’s Voice Media was supported by members of the National Co-production Advisory Group (NCAG) to facilitated storytelling sessions focusing on people’s experience of services. Over several months, we gathered stories from a range of people and ran some online workshops to explore the key insights in the stories with the storytellers. At these sessions we developed some recommendations based on the lived experiences gathered and explore how this learning could support the implementation of the One Halton Co-Production Charter.
The results of this work can be viewed in this short video:
This Black History Month, we are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded funding from the National Lottery Community Fund’ to run a 18 month Global Majority Community Reporter project. The project is set to start in November 2024 and builds on our existing work in this area.
This funding will allow us to continue strengthening our Community Reporting network, with a dedicated focus on training and supporting Global Majority Community Reporters. Through our work in Community Reporting, we strive to broaden the narrative, making sure that storytelling is a powerful movement for change and becomes increasingly inclusive of underrepresented voices.
Changing the World, One Story at a Time
At People’s Voice Media, we believe that stories are a powerful tool for creating change and we are committed to amplifying the voices of those from Global Majority backgrounds in our work. They are not only reflections of our experiences but also agents of transformation. However, we recognise that this journey will look and feel different for Global Majority individuals, and therefore this project will recruit, train and mentor people from Global Majority communities to use lived experience storytelling to support racial justice.
The aims of the project are to build the capacity of people from Global Majority communities to be leaders in co-production and social change fields. Through a mixture of training, peer support and mini-social action projects we want to create a space where the experiences of global majority individuals are not only amplified but also central to the change we aim to achieve. Also establishing an England-wide Global Majority peer support network for people from Global Majority communities working in co-production and social change arenas. We know this work is essential to addressing the deep societal inequalities that persist, and storytelling can be the key to unlocking new possibilities for justice and equity.
A New Chapter for Inclusive Storytelling
Through this initiative, we want to further embed anti-racist practice across our Community Reporter network and create spaces for people with experiences of racism to talk about this safely. We hope that this will contribute to transformational change in our own work and the boarder co-production sphere, creating racial justice in these settings.
The work will be led by Isaac Samuels – the Community Reporting lead at People’s Voice Media. It builds on their current work with the Co-Production Collective that has been researching the lived experiences of racialised communities in co-production and research and working with organisations in this arena to turn the insights from people’s stories into applied action.
In the coming weeks, we will be sharing more about this exciting project, including how people can get involved. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue this vital work!
Late last year the Adult Social Care All Party Political Group came together to take part in some Community Reporter Training.
Over the course of the online sessions, people developed a core understanding of Community Reporting techniques including the basics of snapshot stories and dialogue interviews, responsible storytelling considerations and usage of the Community Reporter website.
The focus of the training was to support the group to gather stories of peoples lived experiences of adult social care. These stories will shine a light on voices from within the community of people receiving support from adult social care, that have otherwise gone unheard, in an attempt to create positive change within the sector. Through sharing personal experiences of what works and what doesn’t with people in positions of power, we hope to influence a progressive shift in service provision.
Since then PVM have delivered follow up workshops to train more Community Reporters and help the group with action planning for the future.
Thank you to everyone who came along to the sessions and shared their experiences, we’re excited to see you continue to use Community Reporting in the future and look forward to hearing even more stories emerge from this work.
If you’d like to share a story on your experience of adult social care – get in touch with Georgia from the PVM team georgia@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk
Back in July, partners from the NACP project came together in Stratford, London to host the final learning festival event to take place as part of the 3 year project.
Community members, volunteers, local groups, organisers and people from across the UK came together to celebrate 3 years of the project and discuss all things Co-Production.
We kicked off the day with a group meal, sharing delicious Indian street food from Ghara – something we felt was important to do given the theme of the day was sharing our cook book which included ‘recipes’ for Co-Production.
During the first part of the event, people were invited to share their own recipes (or methods) for Co-Production, after which the project team began to present ideas and examples of projects rooted in Co-Production.
Towards the late afternoon our marketplace was opened up. Pop up activities took place throughout the venue, from collaborative collage, to community reporting, an interactive recipe wall and even a human library, people got stuck into some Co-Production themed activities.
Camerados came along and generously hosted our very own Public Living Room, which was complimented perfectly by our resident DJ and biscuit dunking competition.
Another significant part of the day was the launch our Co-Production Cook Book. This cookbook includes recipes from some of the fantastic people who adventured with us over the last three years, from Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and North East London.
We invite you to use these recipes freely in your communities and see where they take you! Please be sure to credit the authors when you do, in the spirit of Co-Production. Follow the link above to access the full cook book.
A huge thank you goes out to the project team, Ideas Alliance, Camerados, and everybody who came along to the event – your contributions and support made it a truly amazing day.
We’re now in the process of reflecting on the project, if you’ve been involved and would like to share your experiences with us – get in touch with Georgia to find out how georgia@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk