Last November I started to work with a group of community champions on a digital inclusion project called ‘Creative Connections’ at the CatStrand Arts Centre in New Galloway, Dumfries and Galloway. The CatStrand Arts Centre is based in a semi-remote rural area in Southwest Scotland, and it is an essential resource where local people can get together to participate in arts, crafts and well-being activities.

The project was initiated because of the impact of lockdown on the CatStrand in reaching out and staying in touch with its local audience. During this difficult time the CatStrand streamed arts events throughout lockdown and although this was a successful way to reach an audience many of their local audience were not accessing their content.

The community champions were trained as Community Reporters and explored ways to use Community Reporting in a creative way. The aim of the project is to encourage residents to embrace the use of digital technology and to discover how it can be used in a creative and interesting way.

Despite the project being held up due to lockdown the community champions have developed technical and creative skills as well as embracing the ethos of Community Reporting and have been using the methodology in their work.

Kath Peters – PVM project manager 

Part of my role at PVM is to manage an exciting European project called Concrit. 

The aim of the pan European project 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, Concrits second Trans National Partnership meeting took place, it was hosted in the fair port city of Gydnia, in Poland. It was great to catch up with partners and although I attended online, I imagined myself enjoying the sea breeze and maybe a poroggi (delicious Polish dumpling) or two. 

Despite the meeting being blended (online and in person) it went very well using a number of platforms, such as Jitsi and Zoom. We also used the virtual whiteboard application Miro Board. This is an excellent tool to collaborate on and to share information and ideas.

During the meeting we found out what specific group each partner will be working with. There are a varied mix of groups, including; parents and families, homeless people, people with mental health issues, migrant workers, older people in a remote rural setting and an urban neighbourhood. 

An important element of this project is to conduct a thorough, useful and inclusive needs assessment for each community. Part of my role is to design this. During the meeting we collectively looked at it and made some tweaks and changes to it, using the Miro board. 

The plan now, is to work with our communities to discover what their needs are, what learning gaps there are, if any. Then we will design specific inclusive learning paths for these specific communities, developing them and then testing them out when we meet again at the training labs in December.

Watch this space.

Kath Peters – PVM Concrit Project Manager