Over the last few months People’s Voice Media and the Community Reporter Network have teamed up with the NHS in Greater Manchester, to gather people’s recent experiences of GP services.

We’ve gathered these stories to explore what GP services are like for people who are accessing them, looking at what is working well and what could be better. With the NHS in Greater Manchester we want to use the stories to open up a conversation across Greater Manchester about GP Services.

We have gathered 65+ experiences from residents in Manchester, Wigan, Salford, Tameside, Bolton, Rochdale, Oldham, Bury, Stockport and Trafford about how they’ve found accessing GP services during the pandemic. People have shared with us the changes they’ve experiences – such as telephone appointments or online consultations – and their perspectives on them.

For some people, the changes haven’t been so positive. For this resident, not being able to speak in-person to their GP has meant that they don’t feel they can express properly what they are feeling and they don’t feel they’ve got the healthcare that they needed. However, other people like this resident explains how new options around how to book appointments and get repeat prescriptions are real positive developments.

You can listen to all of the stories we’ve gathered here: https://communityreporter.net/experiences-gp-services and we will keep you up-to-date with any developments with these great pieces of insight. Watch this space!

Since September People’s Voice Media have been working on a project with volunteers and community members from across Manchester. In February an online evaluation session took place in which people fed back their experiences working on the project.

The project has been delivered in collaboration with Manchester Local Care Organisation and a variety of VCSE organisations from across the city. Local health development coordinators from MLCO have helped support representatives from the VCSE organisations both in and out of the training sessions. Last week HDCs and team members from MLCO came together to provide feedback on their experiences of the project, reflecting on the aims of the project. Below are the key themes and questions that emerged in the evaluation session:

To utilise the knowledge & expertise of VCSE organisations working in Manchester neighborhoods

• The people involved in the project reflected the communities that need more representation
• The range of VCSE orgs involved in the project meant a diverse range of stories emerged
• The trainings provided opportunities to build connections between Manchester VCSE’s

To train staff & volunteers as Community Reporters

• Trust & confidence levels were impacted by the amount of organisations and representatives in the training sessions
• The practical aspects of the training helped to solidify people’s learning
• People would benefit from learning how Community Reporting could be used in different contexts outside of the project

To build relationships & develop trust between communities & healthcare professionals

• The trainings offered a chance to build relationships between VCSE organisations
• The payment offered for taking part in the project strengthened links between MLCO and community organisations as people feel their contributions are valued
• Difficult to measure cause and effect in terms of developing relationships and building trust in this context

To gather, curate & share stories of people’s experiences during the pandemic to bring about positive change in local communities

• A series of films have been produced as a result of the project including voices from various communities within Manchester reflecting on their experiences of the pandemic
• Confidence levels increased in some of the people who took part in the Community Reporter training sessions
• Future potential for discussions around the content that has been created

Develop trust in public health messaging (Questions raised by MLCO)

• How could we use lived experience stories in health messaging?
• How can we adjust health messaging to reflect the complexities of people’s lives?
• How do we understand from a community perspective what matters?

The evaluation session marked the end of the project and was a great opportunity to regroup and reflect on people’s experiences. We hope the people involved in the project continue to use Community Reporting in their work in the future, and look forward to seeing how the stories gathered continue to generate conversation around the impact of the pandemic on Manchester’s communities.

Over the last year, – our staff team and Board members have been reflecting on how People Voice Media and as team members we can address systemic racism and be actively anti-racist. It is clear to us that simply not being racist is not enough.  We carefully looked at the make-up of the people who work at and lead our organisation, and the project partners we have and who is generally involved in our work – and the numbers spoke for themselves. At all levels there is an over-representation of white people involved. We recognise this needs to change and we agreed to commit at a team and leadership level to do work in this area, although we didn’t know where this work would lead us. 

Using the framework above has helped us to think about how where are we now and as the people who make the organisation where we would like to and recognised as actively anti-racist. Whilst we have never denied racism is a problem is a society, we had previously not fully acknowledged our role as an organisation in not actively and strongly enough seeking to dismantle the structures than perpetuate systemic racism and in being actively anti-racist. We have been in the zone of ‘not being racist’ and offering ‘equal opportunities’. We now see that this passivity is part of the problem and have and will continue to make moves both internally and externally to address this.

Our aim is to reach the Growth Zone and remain consistently in it. Yet our experience of becoming anti-racist is that it is not a linear journey with an end point. Parts of what we have been doing is situated in the learning zone – educating ourselves, having the uncomfortable conversations – and within the steps we have taken as individuals and as an organisation we are seeing glimpses of the growth zone – we have begun to surround ourselves with others who think and look differently than us. 

Reaching the Growth Zone doesn’t mean our work will stop. Being actively anti-racist is an on-going process. Therefore, rather than have an anti-racist policy or set of pledges that are static, we are instead going to:

• keep consistently reviewing what we are doing in this arena
• seek feedback and input from others on what we do
• be transparent about our work in this area and open ourselves up to accountability and challenge from ourselves, people in and external to our network and the general public. This blog post is the start of this. 

So, what changes have we been making and currently working on? 

• Working on including anti-racism work as a core part of our Community Reporting training and aligning anti-racism to our core purpose and values.
• Take responsibility for anti-racism in the spaces we have created (or are a part of) by actively challenging instances of racist behaviour, both conscious and unconscious, and not leaving it to others to do.
• Recognise and acknowledge the lack of diversity within our own team and seek to address this. (We’ve made a great deal of progress here at a leadership level via the Board and also in our Freelance Crew).
• Recruit people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, and other minority groups not only on projects related to their identity. (Again, hopefully you have seen some changes here already as well).
• Represent more clearly the diverse communities we work with in our communications and resources. Ensuring that we represent the people we work with in the visual content we gather, use and share. (Another area that we’ve had feedback that people have seen a different already). 
• Widening these discussions to include the Community Reporter Network, seeking critical reflections and challenge, and input into how we become actively anti-racist.

What next?

We want to be transparent and accountable for our work at becoming actively anti-racist, and so that we are not in ‘our own bubble’ we feel it’s important to share what we our doing with people. To do this we will:

• provide regular updates through blogs like this on our actions, progress, and commitment to anti-racism
• have anti-racism work as an item on our agendas at all team meetings and Board meetings
• continue to create spaces for anti-racism conversations to happen in both 

             internal and external meetings.

The feedback and input we’ve had so far at a recent Community Reporters’ catch-up has been 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 input has directly fed into a piece of work we are developing to support people from Black and minoritized backgrounds in co-production environments, which are indisputably very white spaces.

How can you help us?

We welcome critical reflections and challenge, as we are aware that we will mistakes on this journey. This will help us to transition from the ‘fear zone’ when you share these with us!

Over the last few months, PVM has been working with a consortium of European partners on the CONTINUE Project. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, the project has set out to gather the stories of young people across Europe, specifically relating to their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PVM trained the project partners in Community Reporter methodologies so that they (along with PVM) could host story gathering workshops followed by story curation sessions with marginalised young people in order to garner insights from their lived experience stories. These insights have now been collated and put together in a series of reports, one for each partner.

The findings of these reports are currently being discussed in a series of Conversation of Change events in each of the partner countries, and the findings from these will be taken forward into the next stages of the project, as well as an online pan-European Conversation of Change event, which you can register for here.

In the meantime, you can download each of the English language reports as a PDF using the following links:

• UK insight report by PVM
• German insight report by CRN
• Lithuanian insight report by Active Youth
• Hungarian insight report by Artemisszió
• Italian insight report by Per Esempio
• Danish insight report by Crossing Borders
• Portuguese insight report by FAJDP

About the CONTINUE Project

Connecting European Youth through Storytelling

CONTINUE will support young people suffering from social exclusion to tackle the specific challenges of post-COVID times in terms of staying connected and integrated into European communities. 

CONTINUE will directly involve young people with migrant and other marginal backgrounds in the project activities in order to enhance the interaction between individuals, their communities and the pan-European levels. .

CONTINUE will be realised by a Consortium of 8 NGOs working with marginal youth groups, experienced in youth education, community-based activities, policy recommendations, working with an extended network of organisations from different sectors.

The Wigan Deal is an informal agreement between the council and everyone who lives or works here to work together to create a better borough. You can find out more about it here: https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Council/The-Deal/The-Deal.aspx

To better understand residents’ experiences of The Deal, People’s Voice Media and the Community Reporter network are hosting a series of storytelling sessions. In these storytelling sessions you will:

• Have the opportunity to share your experiences of The Deal
• Record your experience as a video or audio story
• Listen to other people’s experiences of The Deal 
• Determine what we have learned from the stories we’ve shared and heard 

We will share the results of these sessions with you later in the year.

How do I get involved?

You can choose to attend one of the following workshops:

• Workshop 1: 2pm – 4pm, Monday 21^st February 2022, Wigan Library, Wigan Life Centre, The Wiend, Wigan, WN1 1NH. REGISTER HERE.
• Workshop 2: 4:00pm – 5:30pm, Tuesday 22^nd February 2022, Online via Zoom. REGISTER HERE.
• Workshop 3: 2pm – 4pm, Friday 25^th February, Education Room at Leigh Town Hall, Market Street, Leigh, WN7 1DY. REGISTER HERE.

You can sign-up for the workshops on the links above, or get in touch with Hayley (who’ll be facilitating the sessions) on hayley@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk Registration will stay open until 2:30pm on 17^th February. 

Refreshments and travel expenses up to £10.00 will be provided for the in-person workshops, and 3 financially supported places are available across the three workshops (see below). 

Why are you running them and why should I take part?

These sessions are part of the EUARENAS project that is looking at how democracy works in different towns and cities across Europe. You can find out more about the project here: https://www.euarenas.eu

By taking part in the storytelling sessions, you will be contributing to the research activities of this project. The learning from the project will be shared in a range of ways including blog posts, research publications, policy briefings and practical toolkits to support communities and institutions to work together to create better futures. 

Financially Support Places

We have 1 financially supported place available per workshop that will be allocated on a first-come, first-allocated basis. The financial support is up to a maximum of £60.00 per person. This can be used to cover:

• Other expenses than travel such as childcare costs, internet costs etc. that you incur through attending the workshops. To claim this, you’ll need to send us an expenses form and receipts. 
• Other support costs such as a PA to support you to attend. To claim this, you’ll need to send us an expenses form and receipt OR ask your support to invoice us directly. 
• Contribution fee. To claim this, you’ll need to send us an invoice and be responsible for your own tax and insurance as a self-employed person. 

About People’s Voice Media 

People’s Voice Media is a social charity who have been working with people since 1995 to create bottom-up social change rooted in people’s lived experiences of the world. Our approach – Community Reporting – uses digital storytelling to help people to share their experiences, connect them with others and create new ways of thinking and doing. You can find out more about us here: https://peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk