Working to support the people that use our services to share their story is important to Livability. Sharing stories is a powerful way of engaging people’s views. Through stories, people can share life, develop connections and express needs and aspiration.
To this end, the charity has recently started to run a number of ‘Share Your Story’ workshops, to provide another route for the people we support to share their experiences with the charity.
The charity has just released a new film called ‘Share Your Story’ to show one of the workshops in action. Filmed with the people that live at Livability Bradbury Court, the film shares views about community.
Share Your Story workshops are designed to explore a range of different questions, subjects and issues. Sometimes this is to obtain a deeper understanding of service user opinion on the charity’s provision – other times it is to research areas of work or how issues affect the people we support. In recent months, the workshops have looked at subjects including what it means to be part of community, friendship and isolation, and experience of Livability services.
By providing another route for service users to share their story and experience, we can build insights that inform our service delivery. In addition – where stories raise issues or needs – we can work to generate support, action or advocacy.
The workshops are designed to be inclusive, accessible and supportive of a range of communication needs. They use a range of communication methods, including Makaton, symbols, supported information and non-verbal communication methods.
Watch our new video all about listening to our service users’ stories
Through a recent workshop we interviewed the people that live at Livability Bradbury Court, (one of Livability’s residential services) to find out more about their views on what community means to them.
Research shows that people’s lives and wellbeing fare better when they enjoy good community connections. Through this workshop, we were able to gather some views and ideas on what experiencing community means to them.
Watch our video: Share Your Story workshops are designed to be inclusive, accessible and supportive
Livability’s Cristina Gangemi facilitates the workshops and said: ‘In building community we should each aim to give space to people, to accompany each other, so that each person can express their needs and inner spirit in a way that reveals the beauty of the person they were born to be.
Watch our new video where Cristina uses a range of communication methods
“Share Your Story is one way in which we’re working to support the people that use our services express their needs and aspirations. It was a privilege to facilitate this workshop at Livability Bradbury Court and meet all of the people there. A big thank you to everyone that was involved.”
Further share your story workshops are planned for the months ahead. Information can be obtained from The Communications and Campaigns team at Livability. But there are all sorts of ways to Share Your Story with us.
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