Raising Voices, Changing Minds, Ending Poverty

Raising Voices, Changing Minds, Ending Poverty Project Summary

Raising Voices, Changing Minds, Ending Poverty Project Summary April 2022 Written by the Raising Voices Steering Group, Staffordshire University, All the Small Things CIC and Expert Citizens CIC Funded by The National Lottery Community Fund A special thanks to The Raising Voices Steering Group: Alfie Luck, Jenn Spice, Justina Heffton, Kornelija Rebzdyte, Monienne Stone, Neil Whitton, Rebecca Smith, Simon Bamford, Stacey Hancock, Steve Harding, Steve Porter, Tracy Knight For more information, contact Ryan Fox Email ryan.fox@staffs.ac.uk 1

Contents What is Raising Voices, Changing Minds, Ending Poverty? .......3 Manifesto for Change ............................................................4 How does Raising Voices, Changing Minds, Ending Poverty work? ...................................................................................8 Collecting Stories in a creative way ........................................9 Using online platforms for the project................................... 21 ‘Raising Voices’ Exhibition .................................................... 22 What’s Next ........................................................................ 25 The Project in Numbers ....................................................... 26

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What is Raising Voices, Changing Minds, Ending Poverty?

Raising Voices was a project commissioned by VOICES, for the Hardship Commission in Stoke-on-Trent. The project was done

by Staffordshire University, Expert Citizens CIC, All the Small Things CIC, and, most importantly, the people of Stoke-onTrent.

Raising Voices was set up to make a real difference for people living in poverty. We met and listened to each other, shared stories of hardship and worked together to help change things that cause poverty.

The project aimed to: • Raise Voices of people living with hardship. We want to take people seriously, support people to take part in the project and work with them as equals by working together to tackle hardship in Stoke-on-Trent.

• Change Minds about poverty and hardship. We want to make people more aware of how poverty feels and how many people are affected. We made a creative and clear social media campaign. We want to make information about poverty from the Hardship Commission easy to find and easy to read and understand.

• End Poverty We want to get a clearer picture how the rules, plans and actions of Government and services affect people’s lives. We want to share stories that show what poverty feels like and how difficult it is. We want to get decision-makers to take it seriously. We want to get lots of people together, to have more power to influence decisions.

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Manifesto for Change The Raising Voices steering group have written a Manifesto for Change. This is what we believe is important and our plan to fight hardship and poverty in Stoke-on-Trent. The manifesto is the shared voice of the Raising Voices steering group and is based on what we heard from people who took part in the project.

We got the information from people at Raising Voices Steering Group meetings, community events, an online form, and Raising Voices Postcards that people sent to us. We used this to help us write the manifesto.

The Manifesto for Change was agreed and signed by Steve Wyn Williams, the Chair of the Hardship Commission for Stokeon-Trent and Monienne Stone who represents the Raising Voices steering group. We had an official signing at the Raising Voices Exhibition launch night.

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Raising Voices Manifesto for Change

Raising Voices and Stoke-on-Trent Hardship Commission are committed to working in partnership to: • Raise the Voices of people experiencing hardship and poverty.

• Change Minds about hardship and reduce the stigma attached to it, and • Work closely with decision-makers to create the changes needed to End Poverty.

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To do this we will: • Form an alliance between the Raising Voices Steering Group and Stoke-on-Trent Hardship Commission in which lived and learned experience are equally valued as driving forces for change.

• Challenge each other to understand the full picture of hardship and poverty through using both statistical data and stories from lived experience.

• Set ambitious targets for reducing levels of hardship and poverty in Stoke-on-Trent.

• Encourage open dialogue with local decision-makers, including Stoke-on-Trent City Council, MPs, and service leaders to constructively share the realities of hardship, review policy and work collaboratively to reduce levels of poverty.

• Actively seek the involvement of people with experience of hardship to identify and enact solutions.

• Work collaboratively with services to increase opportunities for communication, reach people with lived experiences of hardship and take action on poverty together.

• Increase the visibility of hardship and connect with allies both locally and nationally, by sharing stories and good practices through social media and other means.

• Bring together the Raising Voices Steering group, the Hardship Commission, local decision-makers, and allies to identify and campaign on issues to address hardship and poverty.

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• Humanise the issue of hardship by sharing stories and challenging the stigma attached to hardship.

• Work together to ensure we are inclusive and address the issues of inequality that underpin hardship and poverty.

• Work in partnership to secure funding for impactful projects to address poverty and hardship.

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How does Raising Voices, Changing Minds, Ending Poverty work?

Raising Voices has worked with a steering group of community members based in Stoke-on-Trent, including Community Researchers, Expert Citizens, and Community Organisers. Each member brings their own experience and expertise when it comes to community issues. People have shared their own lived experiences of poverty and hardship to inform action and change. This way of working has been at the core of this project.

The steering group have met 8 times since the first meeting in November 2021. We had 6 in-person meetings and 2 online remote meetings. Community members worked together with project staff to help steer the direction of the project and make decisions.

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In-person meetings were held at Staffordshire University in Shelton and at the Expert Citizens office, in Stoke on Trent.

Members of the steering group have helped to plan and run workshops for the project, using their skills and knowledge to help people from the local community to tell their own stories, share experiences, and give their views on poverty and hardship in Stoke-on-Trent.

Collecting Stories in creative ways When we started meeting, the steering group talked about how important it is for us to share people’s stories when we talk about poverty and hardship. Statistics and numbers on poverty and hardship are important but they do not explore the true experiences and trade-offs that people have day-to-day. Stories bring numbers to life and make it easier to imagine what it is like to live with poverty.

It was extremely important to focus on collecting stories in lots of different and create ways. We had to think about the rules about keeping people safe in the COVID pandemic and what could make it difficult for people to take part. We had some ways for people to take part online, at home, by post and at small events in different places in the community.

People have made a wide range of things to help tell their stories and share their ideas with other people. These include postcards, poems, audio podcast, photographs, clay tiles, and well-being tips.

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Postcards The project postcard was the first creative tool we made for the project. The idea was that this could be a way for people to tell their stories in their own words or with pictures, from a distance and could be anonymous if they did not want to give their name. The postcard design was checked and changed by the steering group to make sure it was clear and easy to use.

The postcards were handed out in February 2022 by members of the steering group. Postcards were given out in their communities, and some were given to other community organisations and charities to pass on to people. 70 postcards were sent back to the project, from all over Stoke-on-Trent and areas nearby. The postcards had freepost envelopes so people could return them free of charge.

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Poetry On Wednesday 9th March one of our steering group members, Jenn Spice, an experienced poet, led a poetry session.

We started planning this event in December, with Jenn having many ideas including making a ‘patchwork’ poem.

Members of the community and people from the steering group worked together at the event to create one big ‘patchwork’ poem that tells a shared story of hardship.

At the session Jenn gave with some tips and tricks for writing poetry which helped people to tell their own stories about hardship as poems. For some people, this was their first time they had tried writing poems, or about their lives.

People have also been sent in their own poems. These have come from community members and the steering group.

“'poverty? w hat is that anyw ay?' m any things; 'relate relative' alm ost hard to say; social m obility; funding (or none) for Com m unities; people care and share; action creates unity;” Excerpt from Patchwork Poem Part 1. By Jenn, Ros, Rebecca, Tracy, Eden, Shelley, Dana, and Ryan

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Raising Voices Podcast

The Raising Voices podcast is hosted by steering group members Alfie Luck and Neil Whitton. They have had lots of conversations with people in 2022.

The first episode of the podcast is about addiction and recovery. The plan is that more episodes will be made from what people have already talked about and recorded.

The podcast has been made with help from The Community Cast. They support communities to create podcasts to tell their own stories.

The full version of the first episode was put out online on Friday 25th March. It is free to listen to, on Spotify, Apple Music, and other audio platforms.

“Raising Voices- The Podcast” https://open.spotify.com/show/5n0H5HCRRtOMx2eE19tvut?si= db4d20d1837640c8

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Clay Tiles On Saturday 12th March, we held a clay storytelling session at St Mark's church in Shelton led by local artist, and Director of All the Small Things CIC, Cath Ralph.

The session gave people chance to tell their stories and views on poverty using clay.

Beautiful tiles were made using stoneware clay, textures from reusable materials, glazes, and slips (liquid clay).

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Photography and Photo walk On Thursday 17th February people took part in the Raising Voices online photography tips and tricks session. This session was led by Simon Bamford, a local photographer who is a member of the steering group, with support from Adam Gratton from The Community Cast. The plans were put together with help from Tony Jones, local photographer from All the Small Things.

The session gave people practical ideas to help use cameras and mobile phones to take pictures that can tell a story.

People who took part in the session and members of the project steering group were able to put the tips and tricks into practice at a Photo walk from Staffordshire University, through Shelton. This gave people time and helped them to notice things, the hardship that can be seen in the area and the messages of support and unity in the community.

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Wellness Session On Tuesday 8th March members of the Raising Voices steering group, Justina Heffton and Kornelija Rebzdyte led a session about wellness and staying well whilst living with hardship.

By talking and listening, people shared their lived experiences and their learned experiences to learn from each other.

There was a good mix of people at the session, different members of the community, with students and staff from the Action on Poverty and Hardship Degree at Staffordshire University.

We heard people’s views on what the barriers are to staying well when we experience hardship in Stoke-on-Trent. People shared what they have done to look after themselves and to stay well. We talked about the services that people wanted to shine a spotlight on, that have helped to make a positive difference to their lives.

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Raising Voices Video interviews Throughout the project people from our local community and Raising Voices Steering Group members have answered the question ‘What does hardship mean to you”. We did this in the form of video interviews. People’s responses and stories have been put together in a video “Raising Voices - The Interviews”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR6zbfH0BZA

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Using online platforms for the project As well as meeting people in-person to run creative workshops, the project has also used different online systems to gather people’s stories and tell people about the project.

With the change to the United Kingdom’s COVID rules in December 2021, we had to change how we ran the project.

The postcard was used to collect stories, because people can do this from home and sent to the project team at no cost, using the Freepost envelope we included.

We wanted to collect information to help plan the project. We decided to use a website to put information about the project and to help people to share their stories and thoughts using the internet. The online page shared information about the project, ethics, consent, and all the different ways of to take part in the project. This was not the best way for us to reach people as it is less creative than other ways we could have used, and lots of people cannot use the internet. It was worth doing because it gave many people the chance to take part, even though we could not easily meet in person.

Raising Voices has used social media to share information and get feedback from people. The Hardship Commission’s Facebook page and Twitter account have been used with great success. Social media helped lots of people to find out about the project, reply and share their own experiences and opinions. It helped us to raise the voices of people who shared their stories.

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‘Raising Voices’ Exhibition It was important to us to share all the different creative things that were made by people taking part in the Raising Voices project. The words, pictures and objects people have created help to show how people feel, and this can affect how people looking and listening to them feel about poverty.

We wanted to show these to members of the community and decision-makers, to let the stories inform people and get them thinking.

The ‘Raising Voices’ exhibition was open on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th March at Staffordshire University in the new Catalyst Building in Shelton. 70 people came to the Exhibition over the two days.

The launch night on the 24th of March was a celebration of what has been achieved with the project. It was also a chance to talk about hardship and poverty in Stoke-on-Trent.

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Members of the Raising Voices steering group, the Hardship Commission for Stoke-on-Trent, and the local community sat together in groups around tables to talk about the project.

Raising Voices steering group poets Jennifer Spice and Tracy Knight read poems including ‘What is Poverty?’ to open the launch night.

We had talks from Hardship Commission Chair, Steve Wyn Williams and Associate Professor for Community Engagement at Staffordshire University, Nicola Gratton.

Expert Citizens Network Coordinator, Phil Parkes, shared his personal journey and experience of poverty and hardship in a very emotional speech.

People who had run and taken part in the project’s creative activities and had helped set up the exhibition, invited visitors into the exhibition area. They talked about the project, the activities and answered people’s questions.

The event ended with the Steve Wyn Williams signing the Manifesto, on behalf of the Hardship Commission for Stoke-onTrent, and Monienne Stone, signing on behalf of the Raising Voices steering group.

On Friday 25th of March the exhibition was open for anyone to drop in and see the display.

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What’s Next The project ended on 31st March 2022 after the exhibition.

The exhibition will be shown online from April 2022.

The Hardship Commission and other community organisations who came to the exhibition launch have offered to show the exhibition in different community buildings in Stoke-on-Trent and nearby areas in 2022.

The Raising Voices steering group will continue to work with the Hardship Commission for Stoke-on-Trent, using the Manifesto to guide us together.

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The Project in Numbers 12 6 Raising Voices Creative sessions steering group members 20 8 Poems Clay Tiles 1 20 Raising Voices People took part Podcast episode in the Wellness Session 70 5,817 Visitors at the People reached Exhibition on Facebook Launch.

70 Postcards sent in 9 Photo stories 211 People took part in community consultation sessions 29,300 Reactions on Twitter

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Raising Voices, Changing Minds, Ending Poverty

For more information please contact: Ryan Fox, Staffordshire University ryan.fox@staffs.ac.uk Phil Parkes, Expert Citizens CIC volunteer@expertcitizens.org.uk Lynne Ball, All the Small Things CIC lynne@allthesmallthingscic.co.uk

Photo Credits © Simon Bamford © Cameron Morton © Adam Gratton 27