by | January 25, 2012

Social Licensee holder in York shares training resource…and the shared network is born!

Like many of the best ‘decisions’ that we make at PVM, when we decided to offer our Community Reporter programme under social licence we started in one place and then got to enjoy the wonderful creative process that happens as the idea evolves and grows. This is one of the best parts of the job and one of the best things about working for an autonomous social enterprise: there’s always space to let the ideas think themselves, to throw up links and connections that alter the path slightly. And then, ultimately, you reach that point where the original idea is still there…but better, more robust, more interesting.

And so it was with the social licence. We knew that we had a programme that worked. We knew we wanted other people to deliver the programme, to increase the reach of the Community Reporter network and offer a more fruitful experience to all of our reporters. We knew that we could support other organisations to find income generating opportunities on the back of the programme. But one of the ideas that ‘thought itself’ was the evolution of a ‘wikinomics’ model of trade and exchange between partners.

MRS Consultancy logoWe have the pleasure of working with some wonderful partners, really passionate and creative and committed individuals and organisations who are doing great work on the ground. So, using the social licensee network as a way of bridging and linking partners together is really exciting for us. Most of us are under resourced and over stretched so being able to access tools that mean you don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel each time is a real asset for anyone. So we are thrilled that MRS in York have begun the knowledge exchange by sharing some simple page design tools that were developed for a European Leonardo programme. The PageDesigner programme is free, available in a range of different languages and aimed to be simple enough for the absolute beginner – a perfect complement to the resources currently available within the Community Reporter programme.

As the network of licensee holders grows we look forward to being able to help organisations share and trade across the partnership – an idea that we hope to explore further in our first trans-national Editorial Board meeting which will take place in April …but more about that another time!

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by | January 10, 2012

Latest licensee holder “can’t wait to get started!”

We are extremely pleased to confirm that Leeds MIND are the next organisation to take a Social Licence to deliver the Community Reporter programme. The licence will contribute to the development of the Leeds Well-being Web, a network of stories from mental health service users designed to challenge stigma and promote positive stories.

We ran the three day Train the Trainer course in the run up to Christmas and had attendance from a diverse and interesting group of people representing a range of mental health organisations across Leeds. Feedback was extremely positive and the general feeling from participants was that they couldn’t wait to get started in the New Year. John Baron, who will be co-ordinating the Well-being Web, said, “We had a terrific three days Community Reporter training with People’s Voice. Looking forward to getting hold of the course early in the New Year and starting the training!”

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by | January 9, 2012

cityinterhacktives feature Community Reporting

I was interviewed before Christmas by Antonia Kanczula, a student on City University London’s MA Interactive Journalism course. Have a look at the blog post and podcast here. She’s picked out some of the key points about Community Reporting – why we do it, what drives us, how it differs from Citizen Journalism and our hopes for the future.

The site is really interesting with lots of comment and analysis on all things social media so it’s worth having a look at their work.

I’d like to thank Antonia for her interest and wish her luck with her future studies.

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by | December 21, 2011

Gary talking about Community Reporting on Sollentuna Radio in Stockholm

I was asked by Johan Flyckt from Sollentuna Radioin Stockholm to talk about Community Reporting and the way it could work in Sweden. This builds on the work we have already done in Stockholm and hope to continue.  The written report is in Swedish but you can listen to the broadcast at the end.  There is a real appetite for this in Sweden and as it developes the reporters will join our growing network of European reporter’s.

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by | December 16, 2011

Is there such a thing as a ‘typical’ Community Reporter?

I am often asked about our Community Reporters – who they are, where they come from, a typical motivation for wanting to create and share content. So when I saw the following posts from one Community Reporter I thought it would be an interesting way to explore what, if anything, is ‘typical’ about our reporters.

Phil is a Salford resident who is heavily involved in his local community and does a lot for the good of the groups he’s involved with. He recently started to post content to the Community Reporter site and already we can see a real diversity of interests and motivations.

Take his piece on the Manchester club, Band on the Wall that was hosting an over 50′s disco. This piece is really personal, anecdotal and shows someone interested in having a good time.

Then there’s a piece on the group Start in Salford – a mental health charity that does excellent work supporting people to well-being through arts and crafts. Phil visited the stall they had at the Christmas markets selling high quality pieces that group members have made over the year. This piece demonstrates someone with a passion and committment to the important work done by charities in communities.

And finally, another post by Phil, this time exploring the campaign started by a NHS consultant Dr Kalash Chad who is worried about the cuts to the NHS. Here is a considered, balanced and heartfelt piece about the campaign and their call to action for people to get involved.

These three posts clearly demonstrate to me what we tell new Community Reporters all the time – the tools are the least interesting part of what it means to be a reporter. Learning to blog or edit or create podcasts is just a means to an end. The exciting part is the stories that people have to tell – about their lives and the lives of their communities. Phil’s posts show me someone who is really alive and engaged and thoughtful – and inspired by social, civic and political stimulus. And maybe this, if anything, is what we might call the most ‘typical’ of Community Reporters.

Visit the Community Reporter site and subscribe to Phil’s channel (salfordhart) to receive more posts as they’re uploaded.

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