We are thrilled to announce the launch of the HOME? Heritage Project website alongside our animation and toolkit.

Partner organisations have already organised screenings and launches throughout February. Global Link in Lancaster and Dragons Voice in Manchester launches were well attended by the local community members and other organisations. Attendees were engaged, informed, and enlightened by the issues highlighted in the animation and toolkit. Some audience members expressed that they gained a deeper understanding of the migrant experience and the valuable contributions made by migrant communities in the UK. 

Additionally, the majority felt they had ideas to effect positive change within their communities based on the insights gained. One audience member commented on how to create employment networks.

The Home? Heritage project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and started back in May ’22. Working in partnership with the following vital organisations who offer crucial support – GLOBAL LINK in Lancaster, MAP in Middlesbrough, LASSN in Leeds, DRAGONS VOICE in Manchester, REFUGEE WOMEN’S CONNECT in Liverpool, and NACCOM who are a national organisation who supported us with the creation of the toolkit. We worked across Northern England, collecting and curating the lived experiences of migrants (including refugees, people seeking asylum, and other migrants) living in Northern England during the last 10 years.

The animation and the toolkit is designed to assist groups in listening to the stories of lived experience of people who have come to the UK in the last 10 years and promote discussion about how we can help people arriving in the UK feel at home. In listening to the stories, we can gain a better understanding of the challenges that displaced people living in the UK face and this understanding will deepen, helping empathy and compassion to grow.

We hope that these resources will support schools, youth groups, community groups, informal education projects, charities, local councils, and other organisations to work with lived experience stories that focus on recent contemporary migration to the UK. Helping to foster a culture of compassion and understanding to counteract the culture of the ‘hostile environment’.

The next and final stage of the project will be the Co-Evaluation Workshop that we will be holding on 18th March 2024. This will be attended by our 5 organisation partners and some of the participants who took part in the project. As a substantial part of the workshop, we would like to carry out some Ripple Effect Mapping. This is an interactive, group evaluation method that encourages people to think about the consequences, effects, and outcomes from a social change project – intended and unintended, big and small.

Since September People’s Voice Media have been working on a project with volunteers and community members from across Manchester. In February an online evaluation session took place in which people fed back their experiences working on the project.

The project has been delivered in collaboration with Manchester Local Care Organisation and a variety of VCSE organisations from across the city. Local health development coordinators from MLCO have helped support representatives from the VCSE organisations both in and out of the training sessions. Last week HDCs and team members from MLCO came together to provide feedback on their experiences of the project, reflecting on the aims of the project. Below are the key themes and questions that emerged in the evaluation session:

To utilise the knowledge & expertise of VCSE organisations working in Manchester neighborhoods

• The people involved in the project reflected the communities that need more representation
• The range of VCSE orgs involved in the project meant a diverse range of stories emerged
• The trainings provided opportunities to build connections between Manchester VCSE’s

To train staff & volunteers as Community Reporters

• Trust & confidence levels were impacted by the amount of organisations and representatives in the training sessions
• The practical aspects of the training helped to solidify people’s learning
• People would benefit from learning how Community Reporting could be used in different contexts outside of the project

To build relationships & develop trust between communities & healthcare professionals

• The trainings offered a chance to build relationships between VCSE organisations
• The payment offered for taking part in the project strengthened links between MLCO and community organisations as people feel their contributions are valued
• Difficult to measure cause and effect in terms of developing relationships and building trust in this context

To gather, curate & share stories of people’s experiences during the pandemic to bring about positive change in local communities

• A series of films have been produced as a result of the project including voices from various communities within Manchester reflecting on their experiences of the pandemic
• Confidence levels increased in some of the people who took part in the Community Reporter training sessions
• Future potential for discussions around the content that has been created

Develop trust in public health messaging (Questions raised by MLCO)

• How could we use lived experience stories in health messaging?
• How can we adjust health messaging to reflect the complexities of people’s lives?
• How do we understand from a community perspective what matters?

The evaluation session marked the end of the project and was a great opportunity to regroup and reflect on people’s experiences. We hope the people involved in the project continue to use Community Reporting in their work in the future, and look forward to seeing how the stories gathered continue to generate conversation around the impact of the pandemic on Manchester’s communities.