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

We are working on a new and exciting 2 year project called Home? – a project made possible by the Heritage Fund, that focuses on the recent lived experiences of migrants in Northern England. Through Community Reporter stories and Archive Research, we will be exploring what it is and has been like to migrate to Northern England over the past 10 years.

On this project, we will be gathering 100 stories to document authentic lived experiences, looking at how people have settled in (or not) to their new homes, how migrant communities have contributed to the places they now live and much more. Through the stories and archive research we want to give a platform to the diversity of voices that make-up communities across Northern England and explore our very recent heritage – making sure it is preserved for future generations. We will also be embedding a social justice and anti-racist agenda into this work.

These stories will then be showcased in the public arena at a variety of venues such as Museums, Libraries, Schools, Colleges, Universities and we will be creating an animation to bring the key messages from the stories together, as well as a toolkit that will offer guidance in exploring migration in community and informal learning settings. 

To achieve all of this we are not working alone and have partnered up with some great folk to help us bring this vision to life. Specifically, in Northern England we are working with: 

• Refugee Women Connect, Liverpool 
• Global Link Development Education Centre, Lancaster
• Leeds Asylum Seekers’ Support Network, Leeds 
• Methodist Asylum Project (“MAP”,) Middlesbrough
• Dragons Voice, Greater Manchester

These local partners will help connect the project and us into communities and engage different people in the heritage activities.

And on a national level we are working with NACCOM – a national network of over 140 frontline organisations and charities across the UK, working together to end destitution amongst people seeking asylum, refugees and other migrants who aren’t able to access to public funds because of their immigration status. NACCOM will be helping us to create the toolkit and tie in the issues and debates from the stories and research into national level conversations.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Since September PVM have been working with Gorse Hill Studios – A Youth Arts Charity based in Stretford, Greater Manchester – on a new project focused on gathering young people’s experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 was a challenging time for many young people, leading to an increase in financial, material and health related vulnerabilities. Existing connections to the social care system, institutions, job opportunities and vital support networks were strained, contributing to a decrease in social integration. This decline in connectivity was particularly difficult for communities who need support with developing digital communication skills. The CONTINUE project aims to support young people who may be experiencing social exclusion, through helping them to tackle the challenges of living in a world impacted by COVID-19. Activities are centered around keeping people connected and integrated into European communities. There are a total of 8 NGOs involved in the project, with expertise in sectors ranging from youth work, education, community-work and policy recommendation as well as an extended network of organisations from across Europe.

The initial stage of the project involved delivering a series of community reporter training session with young people. For PVM in the UK this happened at Gorse Hill Studios in Stretford, Greater Manchester. Young people learnt storytelling techniques and developed digital skills before recording their own lived experience stories reflecting on their experiences of the pandemic. Each young person’s story varied with some exploring the negative impacts such as feelings of isolation and loneliness and others highlighting the opportunity it provided them to focus on developing hobbies and interests. You can listen to the stories recorded by the young people in the UK and across Europe on the Institute of Community Reporters website.

In November, when the story gathering process is complete, partners will carry out a series on knowledge curation and mobilisation sessions. Young people will analyse the contents of the stories, picking out key themes and learnings which will then feed into a series of Conversation of Change events. These will take place in the localities where story gathering has taken place and invite the young people, local leaders and members of the wider community to collaborate and discuss what findings have emerged from the stories.

Stay tuned for project updates and to find out more about future activities!