A #Bit of Company Chat is a talk show with a difference brought to you by Camerados and People’s Voice Media. Think ‘The Last Leg’ meets ‘The Graham Norton Show’, with a bit of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ and ‘The Big Breakfast’ thrown in for good measure and you might be somewhere close… in truth, we’re not too sure how it’s all going to turn out, but we do know we will have fun making it!

For five weeks starting at the end of January, we’ll be live-streaming twice a week for about 40-minutes (ish) and chatting with folk from the Camerados movement and beyond, about the issues that really matter to them. We’ll cover topics from creativity and the great outdoors, through to systemic racism and we’ll be looking for you folk at home to be throwing your 2 pence worth in on social media as well. The shows are based on the ideas that have come from stories gathered as a part of the ‘Emerging Futures’ project and we wanted to open-up the conversation with you all about them.

Join us, get involved and let’s talk about the stuff that matters to us!

You can watch live on YouTube via the links below… or Camerados Facebook Page and Twitter Feed, People’s Voice Media’s Facebook Page and Lankelly Chase’s Twitter Feed. 

12:00pm Tuesday 26th Jan 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 1 – YouTube Link

7:00pm Tuesday 26th Jan 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 2 – YouTube Link

12:00pm Tuesday 2nd Feb 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 3 – YouTube Link

7:00pm Tuesday 2nd Feb 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 4 – YouTube Link

12:00pm Tuesday 9th Feb 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 5 – YouTube Link

7:00pm Tuesday 9th Feb 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 6 – YouTube Link

12:00pm Tuesday 16th Feb 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 7 – YouTube Link

7:00pm Tuesday 16th Feb 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 8 – YouTube Link

12:00pm Tuesday 23rd Feb 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 9 – YouTube Link

7:00pm Tuesday 23rd Feb 2021 / A #Bit of Company Chat – Episode 10 – YouTube Link

Last week I had the pleasure of spending time exploring different methodologies and practices around critical thinking and the construction and de-construction of narratives, with partners and practitioners from different European countries. This is part of an exciting European project that PVM are collaborating on, called Concrit. 

Concrits aim 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’s Peer Review training was meant to take part in Berlin but for obvious reasons it was online instead. And of course, online training and co-production can’t ever take the place of being together in person, but it has to be said it was still a fruitful experience.

We used the online platform Jitsi and the virtual whiteboard application Miro Board. Jitsi was quite unpredictable, getting frozen and kicked out if the internet wavered, however, I found that once again the Miroboard was an excellent tool to collaborate on and to share information and ideas.

And share ideas, we did. We tried out a variety of practices and then applied them to real life settings and then reflected on their effectiveness. The next step is to develop them further, re-designing and adapting them to suit different settings and groups. The most effective will be chosen to add to the learning paths that we are developing.

I’m looking forward to seeing the partner again in the new year for more sharing and creating together.

Kath Peters 

Project Worker – Lead Facilitator

£25,500 pro-rota / 3-4 days per week / 15 months fixed term contract
Home-working with 1-day per month team co-working in North West England and travel across the UK and Europe (Job share considered)

People’s Voice Media are looking for an experienced Facilitator to join our growing team. This role is vital to our central objectives and plays a fundamental part in helping us to create a more socially just and equitable world through bringing people’s voices together to create change at local, national and international levels. The role will involve working with people and their lived experiences to facilitate co-creation, participatory research, evaluation and learning/development programmes.

Download the full job description and application information here.

To Apply

Send the following to Hayley via email (hayley@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk) by midday (12pm) on Wednesday 2nd December 2020 –

• A CV (no longer than 2-pages including 2 referees)
• Oneof the following that explains how you meet the role specification and what you would bring to the organisation:
  • A covering letter (no more than 1-page)
  • A video (no longer than 5 minutes)
  • An audio recording (no longer than 5 minutes)
• In your email, please let us know the following:
  • If we can contact your referees prior to interview 
  • If you have a preference of 3 or 4 days per week
  • If successful, when approximately would you be able to start with us

This week is Alcohol Awareness Week and this year’s theme is Alcohol & Mental Health. At People’s Voice Media, we’re taking the opportunity to reflect on work we’ve carried out with people with alcohol addictions, and the learnings we’ve made to help services better support those on the road to recovery.

In the course of our work, we’ve gathered stories from people recovering from alcohol addiction, with the discussion particularly focused on the process of recovery: what recovery means to them, the support available, what works, and what doesn’t.

Throughout our chats, the idea that kept coming up was that recovery was akin to going on a journey, to being reborn. Recovery isn’t a quick fix, or a cure, but rather a hopeful journey that takes the person experiencing it to a new way of living.

We also uncovered a variety of learnings about why some recovery services work better than others, and what people living with addictions would like to see from the services supporting them.

• Recovery is not a box-ticking exercise and what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another. It’s a non-linear journey so a one-size-fits-all approach is not going to work.

You know, many years ago, if you couldn’t attend an appointment then you’d be sent a letter, you know, you’ve missed your appointment, you’ve missed your appointment, we’re closing your file. But now, you know, we’re evolving where we can we will come and see you and work around the client.” He goes on to say that this change in delivery is brilliant.

Person in recovery

• While some people with addictions will have shared experiences, this does not mean they have the same experiences. So, while some aspects of recovery, such as detox and rehab, are standard, a person-centred approach needs to be taken in order for each individual’s circumstances to be taken into account.
• Recovery does not happen in isolation. Each person has their own recovery community that can include Recovery Workers, care workers, social workers, medical professionals, family and friends. The more people supporting the service user, the more tailored their recovery journey can be. And the less isolated the person in recovery is, the more their recovery is likely to succeed.

I don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for the support networks. I don’t believe I’d be here now at all, and I’m very, very grateful.

Person in recovery

• If more people are involved in an individual’s recovery, then less pressure is on the Recovery Worker since they are not the only source of support for that person and this, in turn, means that they are able to help service users more effectively and take care of their own wellbeing.

Ultimately, the biggest learning to come out of the stories we gathered is that people should be treated as more than just their addiction in order to support their recovery from it.

For more information on how you can get involved in Alcohol Awareness Week, visit Alcohol Change UK.

Last week we teamed-up with the Italian pilot in the CoSIE project to deliver their local summative knowledge exchange that look at what they had learned during their pilot and what they were going to do next.

The Italian pilot has been focused on reducing childhood obesity in Reggio-Emilia and have been working with different health care professionals, families and other wider stakeholders to co-design an App aimed at addressing this issue. This summative knowledge exchange took the format of a ‘Living Lab’ and used different ‘boundary objects’ created during the pilot as stimuli for reflective discussion, as well as linking this learning to future activities.

In the event we explored ideas about how to launch the App and how language would play a key role in connecting it with families. Learnings from previous engagement activities with families about the words they used to describe health and wellbeing were used as a basis for this discussion. We also reflected back on the different co-creation activities that had been incorporated into the pilot. Using a stakeholder map from the beginning of the pilot, attendees of the event identified a range of activities they had been involved in. They are now using these on a matrix document to evaluated the impact of them.

A key part of the event, was reflecting on the role of the Consulting Committee in the project. The Consulting Committee is a group of cross-sector professionals who have been part of the co-creation activities in the project and this innovation has helped to breakdown silo working and thinking, thus promoting collaboration and expertise-sharing. The attendees of the summative knowledge exchange used Flinga as a way of organising their thoughts on the Committee and how this approach (or group of people) can be used in future to drive forward social innovations in health care in Reggio-Emilia.

The People’s Voice Media provided the online facilitation that supported this exchange and also captured some people’s experiences of the pilot via a storytelling activity. What we loved about this event, is that it was using ‘evaluation’ not as an end point, but as a driver for on-going change, learning and development. So despite it being called as ‘summative knowledge exchange’ due to the pilot and CoSIE project approaching their end, the session was focus on what is going to happen next, which we believe is key to maintaining and improving public services.