Community Engagement

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by Helen Sturman

Rebuilding Community Connections with Not Another Co-Production Project

Helen Sturman, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire Area Development Manager for Parkinson’s UK, shares her experience of being new in the job when joining Not Another Co-Production Project. She outlines the importance of flexibility when rebuilding community connections with people with long-term health conditions, and how co-production values the range of life experiences, knowledge and skills that people can bring.   …

Co-production, Community Based, Community Development, Community Engagement, Guest Blog, Voluntary Sector
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by Mel Parks

It doesn’t have to rhyme: Collaborative creative writing as a community tool

Mel Parks shares ideas on using collaborative creative writing in community settings to bring people together, creating a unified experience often with the added benefit of new insights and surprising connections. As well as being lots of fun! Many people are scared of poetry and creative writing often brings back memories of school, and often not good ones, so I…

Collaboration, Collective Power, Community Engagement, Storytelling, Wellbeing
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by Mel Parks

Not Another Co-Production Festival

It’s almost one year since we began our Not Another Co-Production Project and it’s time to celebrate all the amazing work that’s been happening with our partner organisations in Greater Manchester. And to help us celebrate, we’d like to invite you to join us at our Not Another Co-Production Festival! The first of its kind anywhere.  We are working with…

Co-production, Collaboration, Collective Power, Community Based, Community Development, Community Engagement, Event, Social Action, Voluntary Sector
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by Mel Parks

Clarissa on tour: A film created to improve the health of people affected by homelessness

During the autumn of 2021, Ideas Alliance teamed up with Groundswell to present a series of live screenings of Clarissa, a film created to help share the experiences of people affected by homelessness while accessing healthcare. The audience was made up of invited healthcare practitioners, NHS staff and staff working in homelessness support services, who all play a vital role in engaging…

Alliance, Arts, Co-production, Collaboration, Community Engagement, Health, Homelessness, Storytelling, Video
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by Isaac Samuels

We need to talk about “lived experience”

Lived experience is essential to co-production, but do we treat those who share their stories with us ethically? True co-production needs long-term thinking, proper support and the creation of opportunities for people who have experienced multiple disadvantage, argues co-production advisor Isaac Samuels in this powerful guest blog.

Alliance, Co-production, Community Development, Community Engagement, Leadership, Lived Experience, Storytelling, Systems Change
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by Immy Robinson

Understanding the 9 million active neighbours of lockdown

The coronavirus crisis saw a huge movement of community activity and support. Immy Robinson, co-lead of the Relationships Project, shares their research about what made people come together. How we can support the different types of active neighbour with an ecology that enables community activity to thrive?

Citizen-led Action, Community Based, Community Development, Community Engagement, Coronavirus Crisis, Covid Considerations, Guest Blog, Research, Social Action, Social Movement
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by Lauren Wallace-Thompson

Doing digital arts differently: St. Helens Libraries and Ideas Alliance’s action research

Find out more about this "learning by doing" project, where the team worked collaboratively with artists, makers, library staff, residents and more to innovate and test ways to help digital arts thrive in St. Helens.

Arts, Children and Young People, Co-design, Community Based, Community Development, Community Engagement, Digital, Education, Research, Technology
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“The Hub acts as a glue bringing together people and organisations who are doing so much to positively disrupt their local systems.”

Burcu Borysik, Mayday Trust