Both in Yorkshire and nationally we know that coronavirus has further exacerbated existing health inequalities. Local insight and work on earlier projects tells us the pandemic is having its greatest impact on more deprived and/or excluded communities in places such as Calderdale, Kirklees, Barnsley and Wakefield. Locally and nationally, there is also evidence to illustrate the disproportionate impact that coronavirus is having on our BAME communities. People’s Voice Media has already started some of this work thanks to community and charity funding in Calderdale and North Kirklees, but our new project, in partnership with Creative Minds and the Association of Mental Health Providers,  will target the most deprived areas in Barnsley Wakefield and South Kirklees.

The project, Mental Health Sustainability, is a focused piece of work to understand the specific needs of the people within these communities, to understand what health and wellbeing support is needed. The project will see us train a network of around 45 Community Reporters from those communities to gather the experiences of the people who live there, and their thoughts on creative activities which would support them.

From the experiences of communities we will then work with our partners to develop culturally sensitive creative projects to meet local needs.

Watch this space…

In Calderdale, coronavirus has further exacerbated existing health inequalities. Local insight and data has illustrated that a range of socio-economic factors that impact on people’s health and wellbeing have worsened during the pandemic. To understand these issues further, People’s Voice Media has been working with local organisations and people to use Community Reporting to gather people’s lived experiences of life during the pandemic and explore the impact of it on their wider health and wellbeing. 

Between September and December 2020, we have worked with a group of people from Central Halifax who are from the communities most affected by COVID-19, with a specific focus on engaging with different BAME communities in the area. We trained these individuals as Community Reporters and as part of this training, they have learned different storytelling techniques to enable them to share their own stories as audio and video recordings, and capture stories from across their peer networks. Working with People’s Voice Media, they have curated these stories into a core set of findings that are have been evidenced in an insight briefing. Key topics within the stories include systemic racism, faith and spirituality, outdoors and the environment, creativity, isolation, advocacy, support services, and the political and global impact. The insight briefing sets out the key findings derived from these stories and links this learning to a set of recommendations aimed at supporting the commissioning of health and wellbeing interventions for the area.

Monday 8th March 2021 / 1pm to 2pm / Register here

Are you a Community Reporter, Social Licensee or a Partner? Join us for an online catch-up with other members of our UK and European network. We run 2 online catch-ups per year and they are a great way for members to keep up-to-date with what is happening in the Institute of Community Reporters (the ICR), learn new stuff and share expertise, find out about opportunities to get involved with, meet other members, network and much more.

It’s only an hour, so grab a brew and a biscuit, log on and find out what exciting stuff is happening across our network! 

1:00pm / Welcome and the ICR Update – Sarah Henderson (People’s Voice Media)

Find out the latest news from the ICR including previous and upcoming events and training opportunities for the network. 

1:15pm / Experiences of the pandemic within the BAME communities – South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (North Kirklees, Yorkshire)

Hear how Community Reporting was used by SWYP NHS Foundation Trust to better understand the experiences of BAME communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

1:30pm / The 3rd ICR Annual Conference – Sarah Henderson (People’s Voice Media)

We’ll be giving you all the details about our second conference in June 2021 and how you can be a part of it!

1:45pm / News, Opportunities and Questions from the ICR network 

Your chance to share what Community Reporting activities you’ve been up to, hear about any opportunities in the network and ask questions to the network or for help from other members.

2:00pm / End of Catch-Up and back to work! 😉 

*Save the date for the next ICR Online Catch-Up – Tuesday 21st September 2021, 2pm – 3pm (UK time)*

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