People’s Voice Media, a social enterprise in Manchester backed by two local universities, has trained over 1,000 Community Reporters to video local events with flip video cameras. They then use social networking to portray their recorded events to each other, and the BBC North. This has empowered local people to develop the confidence to discuss their issues and worries with all sorts of senior people, in a powerful and compelling way. And this skill has absolutely changed their lives by helping them find their own voice. Everybody has a voice and everybody has something to say - but how many people know they have something worth saying? People's Voice Media works with communities, organisations and public bodies to use social media as a tool for greater voice and engagement, because communities have been trained to do just this.
What is meant by social media? It is a set of tools that allows individuals and groups to become content producers rather than content consumers. It is a move away from the old “one to one” communication model to one where people create content that everyone is able to access. Because of this, social media is the ideal way for groups and individuals to have a voice. PVM works with people gives them the skills and confidence to be able to use technology in order to tell their own stories to challenge perceptions and describe their own realities. It also brings them into the wider network of community reporters across the UK and Europe. Their work with organisations helps them to use these tools as a way to have a meaningful dialogue, consult on ideas and co-produce services. These techniques have also been to help create stronger communities for over 15 years and in that time PVM has worked with organisations such as housing associations, mental health boards, schools, religious groups, youth organisations, disability groups and police authorities.
There are different ways PVM engages with people, different methodologies and different outcomes. Each one takes work from both sides to get it right but what can come out at the other end are stronger communities. An effective dialogue is not just one side speaking or one side listening - it’s active listening and acting on what comes up. Communities that we work with have the skills to tell their stories so it takes an extra step for you to listen and act on what they have to say. Just like other relationships, social media relationships work best as a two-way conversation. But there may need to be a culture shift within your organisation to support you in communicating with rather than communicating at. Equally, your target group may need a package of support to prepare them for the responsibility that’s required for managing effective dialogue.
Running a bad consultation is almost as bad as not consulting at all. You can do consultation to people but it’s even better to do it with them. Even better than that is sustaining on-going channels of discussion and feedback. There are simple and effective ways of embedding consultation conversations into your approach that we can help with. But PVM’s strength comes from the way it co-creates and co-produces material with the community and the Universities help. Many hands make light work and many heads can improve service delivery. There are a whole range of simple and effective ways to work closely with those people on the receiving end of your services to offer you invaluable insights into what’s working and what areas could be improved. Using social media for community development, consultation and service development has a large number of advantages, as long as you are prepared to give up control to engage in more egalitarian dialogue with service users. After all, a problem shared is a problem solved, and we believe that people are best placed to solve their own problems.
If you need someone to come and train your community in Community Reporting, run a consultation, report at an event or some bespoke training then you can commission PVM to create, deliver and evaluate a piece of work that fits your needs. They are passionately committed to embedding skills within communities or organisations to grow the network of Community Reporters - and increase the range and profile of content produced by reporters. One way they are doing this is to offer the Community Reporter programme under social license. The license incorporates a Train the Trainer programme for staff or volunteers, meaning that the skills and knowledge stay within your organisation or community. What's more, part of the license package includes support in how to develop Community Reporting as an income generating activity.
PVM has over sixteen years experience of working in communities and have a wealth of knowledge, skills and competencies around community engagement, community development and organisational development. They can offer consultancy to work with staff or service users across a range of different areas, including setting up social media centres in new or existing IT suites, developing communication hubs within communities or using social media for community engagement. They also appreciate that the best solutions come sometimes when organisations pool their skills and knowledge, and we are therefore open to developing joint enterprises where the skill set will bring about exciting opportunities for communities
If you want to learn more about PVM and its ‘Community Reporters’ Programme or see what the collective work of communities can achieve using advance flip video go to their web-site at http://peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/. [1] Much of the above material was taken from this web-site and shows the capability of communities to act with quality in the design and networking of the new media.