People’s Voice Media recently worked with Dr. Dayo Eseonu from Lancaster University on a research project investigating racial justice and equality that saw us work with racially minoritised young people in South Manchester as part of a 3-day Community Reporting programme. Tony, our facilitator, shares his experiences of the programme…

The participants are young people (13 to 15 years old) who were attending Rekindle’s summer school in Hulme, Manchester. I was tasked with equipping the young people with Community Reporting skills to share their lived experiences about their experience of place from a racial justice and equality lens.

There was so much that resonated with me about this piece of work as it brought up my early years of experience of education and racial injustice. As a part of my preparation, I visited the school’s website and was immediately impressed with the school’s ethos and especially their strapline “The school you wish you’d attended”.

There were some challenges on the project, such as the age range of the group being slightly younger than I had expected and each day having slightly different participants (rather than the same group throughout). However, I adapted the session plan to keep the young people engaged with a variety of participative activities and I was mindful of a conversation that we had previously had at People’s Voice Media, wherein we spoke about giving ourselves the permission to be creative. Technical issues with the recording kit meant that the stories we gathered couldn’t be used as recordings due to sound quality but we were still able to get rich insights from the young people about their experiences of growing-up in the city. They developed skills in interviewing and storytelling, even if the technology failed us! 

Working on this project it was important that I created Timothy Clarke’s four stages of psychological safety in order to make it a space in which the young people could share lived experiences connected to racial equality and justice:

1. Inclusion Safety: People feel comfortable and wanted in a group.
2. Learner Safety: People feel able to ask questions, try things out and make mistakes. (The group did this in bucket loads!)
3. Contributor Safety: People feel safe enough to share their own ideas without being embarrassed.
4. Challenger Safety: People challenge other group members’ opinions including the group leader’s opinion. Fostering the culture of safety to challenge meant that young people were able to have ‘brave space conversations’ which are more meaningful than safe space conversations.

It is these pillars that enabled us to have so many insightful, challenging, productive and human conversations throughout the three days. 

Overall, the sessions were fun, there was a point when one of the young people asked me about my motivation for working with young people and I paused, looked up and another young person was trying to fit an elastic band around his head… I explained that it is moments like these that I relish working with young people.

In the bustling heart of the Black Country, a transformative initiative is stirring waves of change, reshaping our interactions with healthcare systems. The partnership between People’s Voice Media and Wolverhampton Voluntary and Community Action has created the space for an inspiring endeavor: Community Reporting within the Black Country Integrated Care System.

In a world where countless stories often go unheard, Community Reporting emerges as a beacon of change. This visionary project bridges the gap between citizens and healthcare systems, capturing the everyday experiences of those accessing health services. It illuminates the intricate nuances that shape our interactions within the healthcare and care systems, enabling local people to have a voice.

On Day 1 of the workshop, seven local individuals embarked on a transformative journey. With fervent curiosity, they delved into the world of Community Reporting. Techniques such as snapshot storytelling took centre stage, showcasing diverse ways stories can be woven, captured, and shared. 

At the core of Community Reporting lies the belief that every voice holds value. This principle reverberates throughout the process, linking stories with individuals and organisations capable of driving positive change. It weaves a rich narrative tapestry, offering a real world view of lived experiences that might otherwise remain unheard.

Beyond traditional healthcare boundaries, this two-year project overflows with innovation. The Integrated Care System framework finds a potent ally in Community Reporting, identifying what works and unravelling transformational opportunities. The project promises to infuse the Black Country’s healthcare landscape with a vital wave of innovation.

As we navigate this inspiring narrative, the potential for profound change becomes evident. Community Reporting empowers individuals and communities, forging connections, and nurturing empathy. Together, as participants, storytellers, and advocates, we amplify voices. We are crafting a future where every lived experience contributes to a healthier, more inclusive society.

Back in July, PVM hosted our 5th annual Community Reporter Network Conference at 54 St James Street in Liverpool.

The day included a series of workshops which explored community reporting and lived experience storytelling, with a focus on creating equitable futures.

We were joined by members of the community reporter network, project partners, and people from across the UK and Europe. It was great seeing so many faces, some familiar and some brand new to the movement.

The day kicked off with two workshops, one focusing on sharing the findings of the HOME? Project and the other providing an introduction to Community Reporting (the storytelling technique we use here at PVM).

After a short morning break we got stuck into exploring the finding of the EUARENAS Project , sharing the recently published city of the future map. The map lays out a vision of a future city where participatory democracy has been able to thrive – you can view the map and find out more by following the hyperlink above.

Disability Rights UK showcased the findings from a storytelling project looking at the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Deaf and Disabled People. They invited people in the space to think about our own role in restorative practice as society recovers from the pandemic. It was an important and thought provoking session and a huge thank you goes out to the staff and storytellers for their time, energy and commitment to the project.

After lunch we delved into the future of data collection and impact measurement – exploring how people’s voices can play an integral role in measuring change in communities. PVM and NOI Project project partners shared techniques from their recently published toolkit (the culmination of the 3 year project) demonstrating how storytelling can be used as a tool for measuring change.

Our friends at Groundswell captivated the room with an interactive workshop exploring the complexities of advocating for your rights while experiencing homelessness. Through providing real world scenarios, they created an environment in which you could place yourself in the position of someone experiencing homelessness trying to access support for your health. An eye opening session which highlighted the challenges and systems people are forced to navigate when placed in a vulnerable positions.

We’re now in the process of gathering feedback on the conference. The team are currently conducting reflective interviews with the people who attended. These experiences will feed into creating next years conference, along with the thoughts and suggestions collected during the ‘Future of Community Reporting’ workshop which ended the days activities.

We can’t wait to hear about how people found the day and feel excited about getting started with the planning of next year’s conference.

Keep your eyes peeled on our social media pages and the blog, as we’ll be announcing updates on the next CR catch up which is taking place later this year.

Until then, that’s a wrap from us!

The  report to the COVID Inquiry has now been completed. It has been sent to the COVID Inquiry team and you can access the report here. Below you have a summary of some of the key points and links to the conversations that PVM had with people, to give you a preview of what the report includes. 

Links to extracts from 6 of the 22 participants

Keymn explains why having an understanding of the value of lived and living experience is training that healthcare professionals must have.

Miro explains why society has to re-think and understand disability differently.

Amanda tells us why COVID information was not fully accessible for Deaf people and what could have been done differently. 

Andy explains to Isaac the reasons for involving people with lived and living experiences.

Hameed discusses both the positive and negative aspects of the pandemic.

Baroness Brinton talks about health and social care problems that were highlighted during the pandemic.

Links to full conversations with all participants

The PVM process starts with individuals narrating their experiences, facts and feelings. We did this by talking to 22 people as part of the joint work with DRUK, so that the lived experiences of Deaf and Disabled people could be input to the COVID Inquiry.

There was one point in the process, where the information given by individuals seemed overwhelming. This was partly because everything felt important and relevant, but also because the task of determining key themes seemed a difficult or limiting process.  For example, when it felt as though every point people made was important, it then seemed like we might be trivialising the topic if we tried to distil it to a few main aspects.

However, the PVM process means that meaning emerges, although this doesn’t happen by magic.  We listen and highlight what we think is important. We might colour code, group together or count how often topics are talked about. We also consider how frequently a contributor might return to talk about a lived experience, as an indication of how strongly they feel about the issue.

For the COVID Inquiry work, we began with some open questions to allow people to give their lived and living experiences in a broad way and in their own words. As the work progressed, and by the time we had recorded 10 narratives, we were able to include some more focussed questions, e.g. Other people have said _____, did you find this was the same for you or what was your experience of this? There was definitely the need to balance the open questions against more focussed ones, because we did not want to lead the participants down a specific route, but we were aware that being able to give the COVID Inquiry team specific details would be important.

In the report we’ve included direct quotations from many of the people who shared their lived experiences. Where necessary, we’ve also offered explanations, based on the conversations and online sense making workshops we held. This is because we wanted to clarify for the Inquiry why particular aspects were different or difficult for Deaf and Disabled people. The key points from the report are:

·  There was confusing and frightening information from national government and local authorities to Deaf and Disabled people.

·  COVID both highlighted and exacerbated existing systemic problems and Inequalities (including racism, ageism and ableism) within statutory services

·  Even though there is legislation, little understanding exists about Deaf and Disabled people’s needs.The report is comprehensive and has had an emotional impact on some readers. We hope it will give people’s voices meaning so that the COVID Inquiry can make recommendations that will support Deaf and Disabled people, together with their carers. As Keymn Whervin stated in the foreword to the report: “The Inquiry must ensure that people affected by COVID have their voices heard, particularly in respect of how we co-produce health and social care”.

Isaac Samuels

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.