During Refugee Week in June (19 – 23) there will be significant events across the North of England where the personal stories of migrants and refugees living in the UK will be heard.

The stories have been collected as part of a Heritage Lottery project running in the North of England. The project is managed by Peoples Voice Media and aims to preserve and archive current stories of migration to the UK over the past 10 years.  From these stories there will be the creation of; an educational toolkit, a database of local new articles and an animation, to share with communities so people can gain a better understanding of the current position of migrants and refugees. These resources will give communities the tools to help to build communities of sanctuary.

Peoples Voice Media have been working with Refugee Women Connect in Liverpool, LASSN in Leeds, Global Link in Lancaster, Dragons Voice in Manchester, MAP in Middlesbrough and using peer-to-peer Community Reporting have gathered lived experience stories as well as undertaking archive research and collected local newspaper stories from the past 10 years. 

There will be 5 in-person events in each area Lancaster, Middlesbrough, Leeds, Liverpool, and Manchester to look at the stories gathered during Community Reporting workshops, as well as reviewing key themes from the archive research activities.

The aim of these events is to bring people together from each area; members of the wider local community, cultural and heritage organisations, to explore the findings of the workshops and research. The events seek to open-up a dialogue between different local people about the heritage of migration in their area, how that relates to their current thinking and perceptions and what can be done to better understand, learn from and preserve this type of heritage in the future.

The theme of refugee Week this year is compassion, and this certainly resonates with some of the stories we have heard from participants on the project who have found the British people very welcoming.

“I’m very happy because we met here very nice people, very kind people.’ Karina, Lancaster.

If you’d like to find out more, please reserve your free space by completing the Eventbrite booking forms below:

Monday 19th June: 12:00pm to 3:00pm – Lancaster

Tuesday 20th June: 12:00pm to 3:00pm – Middlesbrough

Wednesdav 21st June: 12:00pm to 3:00pm – Leeds

Thursday 22nd June: 12:00pm to 3:00pm – Liverpool

Friday 23rd June: 12:00pm to 3:00pm – Manchester

Or get in touch with Kath Peters at People Voice Media at kath@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk

The next stage of HOME? is here. It’s time to come together and learn about the findings of the project so far – and you can get involved!

Next month we’ll be hosting 5 in-person Knowledge Exchange events in Lancaster, Middlesbrough, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester as part of the HOME? Project. We’ll be looking back at lived experience stories gathered during Community Reporting workshops that explore people’s experiences with migration. We’ll also we reviewing key themes that have emerged from the archive research activities (a collection of local newspaper articles from each of the 5 cities mentioned above themed on people’s experiences moving and living in the UK).

The aim of these events is to bring people together to explore the findings of the HOME? Project so far and start to envisage what impact these findings might have. We’ll open up a conversation between local communities about the heritage of migration in their area, how that relates to their current thinking and perceptions and what can be done to better understand, learn from and preserve this type of heritage in the future.

Sounds up your street? Reserve your free space by completing the Eventbrite booking forms below:

Lancaster Knowledge Exchange Event: Monday 19th June 12:00 – 15:00 (BST)

Middlesbrough Knowledge Exchange Event: Tuesday 20th June 12:00 – 15:00 (BST)

Leeds Knowledge Exchange Event: Wednesday 21st June 12:00 – 15:00 (BST)

Liverpool Knowledge Exchange Event: Thursday 22nd June 12:00 – 15:00 (BST)

Manchester Knowledge Exchange Event: Friday 23rd June 12:00 – 15:00 (BST)

We are currently finalising the plans for each of the Knowledge Exchange events and can’t wait to welcome you to the spaces. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch – enquiries@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk – we’d be more than happy to help.

We have been working away at an exciting EU project called Narratives of Impact since September 2020 and last month we had our penultimate meeting in the fabulous city of Milan. The partners from Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain and myself (UK) got together to finalise the video guides that we have made to go along with a toolkit created for NGO’s, charities, and voluntary organisations to use storytelling to measure impact.

The toolkit is designed to help organisations, teams and individuals to use storytelling to to see what is working and what needs to be improved. Applying storytelling methods can really help to improve data collection and more importantly help improve services and delivery. Using different storytelling methods can help people to engage with data collection and learning processes in a creative way, enhancing inclusion and access, as well as interest and commitment. 

Each partner has worked hard over the past few months to create their own video guide and it was great to watch the final videos together whilst eating delicious Milanese pizzas. Marco from @COSV hosted us in the COSV offices in Milan and gave us a warm welcome. It was good to meet the staff and see where they do their important work.

The next step in the project is translating the toolkit into Italian, German, Spanish and Polish ready to be published in June.

Kath Peters, project manager, PVM.

After the events of May 2020 which saw George Floyd murdered by a police officer in Minnesota, the People’s Voice Media team were prompted to examine our own complicity in systemic racism. At the time we were a predominantly ‘white’ organisation, across all of our layers and we could not pretend that we did not have a road to travel.

However, we did not want to make empty gestures that would be quickly forgotten with no lasting impact. Instead, we wanted to have a long-term anti-racism strategy that would enable ourselves and others to hold us accountable. We wanted this to not only align with, but also inform, our overall strategy and vision for the organisation.

This has been a long process over almost three years, beginning with the setting up of a subgroup of our Board to work on the topic, and evolving through education, conversations, and active listening into what will be our Anti-Racism Vision.

Our Vision – which will be published on our website in the very near future – will not be an end point, rather a beginning. It lays out the next two years as a series of milestones for our team and Board members, our organisation, and the sectors in which we work. It recognises that becoming actively anti-racist is an on-going commitment with no final end point. As such, the Vision will be a living document. At the end of two years we expect to have more to add, more to do, keeping anti-racism at the centre of what we do, and at the heart of our goal to create a socially just work.

There is work to do and it is work we are already in the process of undertaking. During the past few years, our team and Board members have:

• Undertaken individual learning on racism as a systemic issue
• Developed a shared understanding that racism is a systemic issue and an issue we need to address on individual and organisational levels

As an organisation we have:

• Established initial relationships with partners who are led by people from communities with lived experience of racism
• Diversified the people who are part of People’s Voice Media in terms of race through changes to our recruitment practices

Within our sectors we have:

• Initiated conversations about systemic racism within those sectors
• Enhanced the racial diversity at events and workshops we host or are a part of

Our Anti Racism Vision will, as mentioned, be published in the near future. For now, if you have any comments, questions or feedback regarding our anti racism work, please do contact us at enquiries@peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk.

International Child Health Group (ICHG) are looking for organisations working with refugee and asylum-seeking young people to collaborate with them to produce a short film to celebrate Refugee Week in June.

ICHG are producing a short film showcasing community led art projects involving refugee, migrant, asylum-seeking children and their families, sharing reflections on their dreams.

ICHG see the film as a means of denouncing anti-migrant racism, hostile rhetoric and policy and hope it will build solidarity among health professionals, VCSE groups and the public to resist and challenge harmful and unjust policy.

They’re are asking organisations to invite the children, young people and families they work with to draw, paint and create art pieces reflecting on their hopes, wishes & dreams. Each piece should also be accompanied by a written description explaining their ideas.

ICHG are asking that organisations then email a photo of each piece of artwork and its description to minpinamy2@gmail.com by Monday the 15th May.

The images will be included in a two minute film with possible animation of some of the artwork. They hope this will humanise people seeking sanctuary, give platform to the voices of children and young people and challenge the narrative around forced migration. The film will be available to share on social media platforms in time for Refugee Week (19th June). In advance of this they would send participating organisations a copy of the film for review and if you are happy with the product they can include your logo.

If you’d like to get involved – get in touch with them via the email listed above!