Lockdown working has presented a fair few challenges for PVM. We’re a largely face-to-face organisation: delivering training, attending project meetings, performing dialogue interviews… It’s all done in person.

As a result, we’ve had to rethink a lot of things. Where we’ve been able to, things are being done remotely. Workshops, knowledge exchanges and meetings have been moved online and we’ve all become experts in a range of video conferencing software and online collaboration tools. Where online hasn’t been a possibility projects have been paused with their deadlines extended, to be picked up again once lockdown measures have eased.

This has triggered a huge rethink in our workflow priorities. Projects that, just weeks ago, were massive priorities with imminent milestones have now shuffled to the back of the queue while work that has been put off in favour of more pressing deadlines (you know how it can be…) has suddenly found itself in the foreground.

For Sarah, this meant spending May taking a deep dive into our curation reports for the CoSIE project to form one of our project deliverables. The deliverable itself isn’t due for a good few months yet, but getting these analyses drafted now means that later this year the team isn’t juggling writing several thousand words, editing stories into a film, and trying to catch up with projects that have been on-hold.

So what are the curation reports?

The curation reports form a key part of the Community Reporting methodology. It involves looking at the stories gathered, pulling out the key themes that span them, and writing them up into an analysis that summarises our findings.

For the CoSIE project, this means looking at the stories gathered in each of the pilot projects. For Sarah, this meant examining the stories from Houten and Nieuwegein (both in The Netherlands), and Hungary, resulting in around 11,000 words of analysis. The insights gleaned were sometimes surprising. For instance, the Hungarian pilot which is all about rediscovering home economics and self-sustainability in disadvantaged communities, demonstrated that many of the participants show that there is a large demand for homemade produce, so much so that some participants are looking at turning their home enterprises into small businesses. Some stories, meanwhile, demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of co-creation – sometimes showing it can only work when everyone involved is wholeheartedly invested.

While lockdown has forced us to reassess our entire working practice, it has perhaps given us opportunity to take time over things we would have ordinarily put back, and given us the time and space to properly examine them without distractions.

That being said, we can’t wait to be back organising workshops and conferences, and delivering training again.

Date: Thursday 9th July 2020 

Time: 1:30pm – 3:00pm   

Register here!

Within the on-going COVID-19 crisis there is a danger that the most marginalised communities across Europe are left out of this conversation. It is important to us, that people who are under-resourced and who often occupy the positions of least power are involved in this dialogue. This is why we launched the #COVIDConversations project that uses Community Reporting techniques to gather stories about the crisis from voices that may go unheard.

As part of National Co-Production Week 2020, we are running this online, interactive workshop to share with you our experiences during the #COVIDConversations project, covering topics such as:

• Collaborations that led to this project
• Techniques for delivering storytelling activities online
• Initial learnings from the stories 

As part of the session, you will also have the opportunity to participate in a bit of digital storytelling and share your experiences of the pandemic with others. Your story will contribute to the growing lived experience archive we are creating. 

The workshop is open to anyone and instructions of how to attend this online event will be sent out to attendees upon registration and via email. All you will need is a laptop/tablet/smartphone with an Internet connection to take part. Places are limited so please only book if you 100% intend to join.

Greece is one of the few countries that effectively managed to shut down the spread of COVID-19 before it really had a chance to take hold, and they are seen as one of the success stories of the pandemic. However, out of their lockdown measures, an unforeseen issue is arising, surrounding the use of digital tools in education settings.

One of our Eurospectives partners, Stephanos Cherouvis of Elliogermaniki Agogi has written a fascinating blog over on the Eurospectives site to shed some light on the ongoing saga.

On the Eurospectives project, our partners have been producing blogs on the affect of lockdown on themselves, their organisations and the project.

Our Italian partner, COSV, have written a fascinating blog about how the digital world has enabled them to keep working both nationally and internationally.

COVID-19 has shown us how fragile our wellness is. The pandemic has already had an impact on mental health and will continue to do so. Using the lived experiences of people who are often marginalised by society, this briefing examines how wellbeing can be better supported for everyone. We believe that the answer lies in seeing wellbeing as a set of core values that should underpin how we work with people, to fundamentally address issues surrounding wellness in our society.

The evidence that has informed this briefing has come from Community Reporter stories from across Greater Manchester. Specifically, the stories are from young people in the care system, sex workers and people experiencing health, housing and economic inequalities. This has been supported locally by:

• The Men’s Room: An arts & health charity that supports men and trans people across Greater Manchester.
• Gorsehill Studios: A youth-focused charity based in Trafford that works in creative education.
• Winning Hearts and Minds: A joined-up approach to improving people’s long-term heart and mental health in Manchester.

We have also run a knowledge exchange event based on the findings in this briefing. You can download the slides from this event here.