People's Voice Media has be working with residents of Calderdale and Kirklees to explore their lived experience of health and wellbeing. Residents have been sharing their stories about what keeps them well, what stops them from being well, how they are feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic and generally just exploring what the world looks like through their eyes. There has been a focus in this work on learning more about health inequalities in the areas, and a key part of this has been working with people from BAME communities and bringing their voices into the dialogue.

To do this work we've been using Community Reporting - a pan-European storytelling movement - as part of this process and residents have been trained as Community Reporters to use basic digital tools to gather the experiences of their family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues. In groups, we have looked through these stories, identified the key insights in them and curated them into some key findings... and now we'd love to share them with you!

As part of this workshop, you will have the opportunity to:

1. Listen to some of the stories we have gathered and hear about some of the key findings that have emerged

2. Explore how you can use some of the learnings from the stories in your own context and work

3. Discuss how what needs to be done to reduce health inequalities in the areas

About this work

There are a number of people, initiatives, projects and partners that have contributed to this working including VAC, Creative Minds, Calderdale Council, Halifax Opportunities Trust, Halifax Central Initiative, West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership, NHS Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group, Healthwatch Calderdale, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Charities Together and Ey Up!. A big thank you to all the Community Reporters and storytellers who have taken part.