Stage: Awarded

Collaborators

• Viewhear CIC
• Operation Emotion
• Trauma Informed Network Plymouth

Describe your aims & ideas

This partnership will tackle issues around trauma, how this affects people and the associated myths surrounding different types of trauma. It will also encourage people to talk more openly about their experiences and come forward to seek the help that they need. We want to reach people from all walks of life to talk openly about their experiences. These people could be young people who have early developmental trauma or grown men who were sexually abused. We want to tackle challenging subject matters and get people talking and listening to promote a greater understanding about the effects of trauma. We see this as an opportunity for people to learn and share. We will do this by developing a series of engaging films that openly talk about different forms of trauma and how this affects people. We want to challenge myths and stereotypes that cause significant hurt to people and ultimately stop people from fulfilling their potential. We believe this is important because, even in 2022, we still struggle with talking about trauma. We live in a society where we ask what is wrong with people, not what happened to people. We live in a world where if you break the rules at school you are deemed naughty and disruptive, with often no understanding of what is perhaps behind this. If you are male who was sexually abused due to male gender stereotyping you are often discouraged from talking about past traumas. Through conversation and education this can be changed and people’s lives can improve. We see the power of film as a great way to achieve this.

Describe how you will work together to achieve this

We are working together as two organisations who use film to tell people’s stories. Stories that are not fashionable and are often overlooked in mainstream society. Our third member is the Trauma Informed Network who exist to get people talking about the challenges trauma has on people. Viewhear CIC is a social enterprise media company, primarily producing high quality impact / promotion films for charities, community groups and small businesses. They deliver a high quality video production service that is different, they use their profits to support communities and give them a voice. Our social mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. Their role is to provide video production services to support the creation of the films during this project. Operation Emotion is a Plymouth based charity that provides services for adult male survivors of sexual abuse, linking with specialist organisations where appropriate. They never ask what is wrong with someone but instead what happened to them. They help men to come to terms with their own experiences and play an active role in helping other men who have been similarly affected by sexual abuse. Like Viewhear, their role is to provide video production services to support the creation of the films during this project. The Trauma Informed Plymouth Network is an open membership group that welcomes any person, professional, or community representative who wishes to join us in developing Plymouth as a trauma informed city. Their role in this project is to support the distribution of films and help with content development and contacts for further consultation that will support the film creation process. We have not worked together before, but we are confident that with the many years of experience we have between us, that we can produce high quality productions that will have a positive impact. We see Viewhear and Operation Emotion working closely together to share equipment, skills and know how. We believe that working with the network will help us to explore further ideas and content to support the production of the films. The network will also be critical to help distribute the final films.

During the first round, POP members will be asked to advise you. What advice would be
most helpful? 

I think the most helpful advice we could receive would be support in identifying whether we are telling the right kind of stories in the right kind of way. This could be from people who have lived experience, those that support people who have lived experience in a professional way, and family and friends of those that have experience of trauma. Stories from those that experience secondary trauma are not often told. That could be a potential area to explore. We would use our extensive networks to help identify what people feel would be most interesting in terms of subject matter. We could do this using various forms of research including; group discussion, individual meetings, and perhaps a survey. We know we cannot cover everything in one project, but we hope that through some positive engagement we can get a sense of what might be at the forefront of people’s minds at this point in time. The Pop Collectives process would really help us achieve this and we would welcome any advice and support from our community

Collaborators

● WonderZoo

● Omnium Radio

● Shekinah

Describe your aims and ideas

We’re trying to tackle social isolation and fear by creating a program of 11 events in 2022-2023 that enable the community to come together, discover or develop their own creativity, experience culture, feel empowered and make friends.

We’d like to create…

– 3 x WonderZoo evening shows at Union Corner.

We will showcase 8 artists from diverse backgrounds to perform spoken word, music, theater or comedy at each show. At least one artist will be new to performance. Food to be provided by Purdy’s Punjabi Cuisine. Free entry to enable greater inclusion and diversity of the audience. These shows will give local artists the chance to share their work, and for the audience to experience local culture. Omnium Radio will record each show, edit the audio and broadcast it on their shows. The volunteers at Omnium Radio come from backgrounds of additional needs and learning disabilities, so this would be a chance for them to be actively involved in a WonderZoo show, meet new people, learn skills and enjoy the community and culture.

– 3x Adelaide Park Fun Days

In 2021 WonderZoo created three Adelaide Park Fun Days over the summer months, which were loved by the local community. We’ve been asked by many to hold the events again this year as they really brought the community together after a long time of social isolation due to Covid19 restrictions. We’d like to create these events again as they did so much good for everyone involved. We collaborated with diverse groups such as Hope Football, Street Factory, DBI, Oasis Project, Nudge Community Builders, RAAY and Adelaide Street Angels, and will be increasing our collaborations this year. This year, Omnium Radio will do vox-pop interviews at these Fun Days with local residents, and broadcast these recordings on their shows. Shekinah will be at the events, with an information table about what they do.

– 4 x Safer Streets Workshops at Shekinah Mutley

Sharon Vinson from Shekinah Mutley charity shop would like to develop her shop into a

venue for cultural events in the evenings. We’d like to pilot this by running a series of 4 workshops at her shop where a speaker/teacher/instructor engages the participants in discussions about street safety. Participants will have the chance to express themselves and tell their own stories. These workshops aim to empower its participants and will include subjects like self-defense and consent. After an instructor has given a talk or demonstration, Chi Bennett (WonderZoo) will facilitate open discussion.

– 1 x Safer Streets Christmas Show at Shekinah Mutley shop.

Those who participate in the workshops will be encouraged to create a performance piece or piece of art inspired by the workshops and perform these at a Christmas Show in December at the Shekinah Mutley Shop. This will allow them to be heard, grow in confidence and make friends, whilst tackling a very important and serious issue that affects so many of us.

– Research Project

These events will form a research project, looking at how WonderZoo can continue to collaborate with both Shekinah and Omnium Radio over a longer-term project, helping and supporting these organisations to have greater connections with the community and more opportunities.

Why is it important?

WonderZoo has always been rooted in breaking down barriers, working with different people, giving people opportunities, supporting them and empowering people. We are always trying to increase our community outreach and we want to work with Omnium and Shekinah because they do really interesting and meaningful programs that help some of the most vulnerable people in society. This fits our ethics, values and aims.

Describe how you will work together to achieve this.

– WonderZoo’s strength and skills are running workshops and performance events. Slain McGough Davey and Chi Bennett created around 120 events over 2020 and 2021, including workshops, street theater, festivals and performance shows, online and in real life. Despite lockdowns and restrictions, they creatively adapted to continuing their performance platforms and workshops. They have a lot of experience working with people and bringing groups together to work alongside each other.

– Omnium Radio’s strengths and skills are working with disadvantaged people and using their expertise with radio technology and broadcasting to provide opportunities for others who may get opportunities elsewhere. We have worked with Omnium Radio at our recent Peace Event raising money for the British Red Cross Ukrainian Humanitarian Appeal. The Omnium crew broadcasted our 7 hour fundraising event live on their radio

station. This was the first time we worked with them and we’d like to grow this connection as there’s a lot of potential for creativity and growth.

– Shekinah’s strengths and skills are having the knowledge and expertise needed to work with vulnerable people. Sharon Vinson is the shop manager and has great organisational and people skills, as well as PR and social media. Over the last two years, Sharon has transformed her shop into a vintage boutique, which is now a popular destination on Mutley Plain. Creating evening events with Sharon will help to develop the shop as a venue. She’s interested in arts and culture and has hosted two WonderZoo charity gigs (in 2020 and 2021) at her shop, which proved highly successful. These two events were the only times we’ve done events with Shekinah, and we’d like to do more as there is a lot of potential for developing the space to become a new cultural hub in Mutley. With our event management skills, we feel we can really support Sharon into making the most of her shop space and creating interesting experiences for the community.

Our three organisations would like to work together because we share the similar values of breaking down barriers, bringing people together and giving people opportunities. We feel that through storytelling, communities have greater cohesion and greater understanding of one another, and art can bring people together in fun and uplifting ways that can inspire others.

Collaborators

● Precious Plastic Plymouth & Tavistock

● Plymouth Scrapstore

● Environment Plymouth

Describe your aims and ideas

Judy Harington and Kate Crawfurd have a project: ‘WASTE…OF OUR TIME’ to create a giant Plastic Waste Spiral Sculpture for Plymouth, in collaboration with communities across Plymouth. The aim is to help tackle plastic pollution through raising awareness, starting conversations about plastic in the environment and giving people a sense of agency – that anyone and everyone can be part of the solution, and show that they care. Participation will generate an increased sense of belonging and pride in the city. The final sculpture will stand as a symbol of the destructive impact the human race has on our precious planet, and a reminder that time is running out to put things right.

The spiral is a symbol of hope: of renewal, of consciousness and life itself. It is a fitting form to contemplate the way forwards.

Judy and Kate are calling out for groups, schools, businesses and households to collect selected clean plastic waste that might reflect a particular problem or be an essential part of the business, or simply be of interest. They will be running workshops to contemplate the issues and create art work, filling the steel-mesh gabion baskets that form the building blocks for a giant spiral maze. Each gabion basket will have a tag stating who has contributed the contents, what it is and if it is locally recycled. The gabion baskets will be stacked to form the high walls of the giant spiral maze, which visitors will be able to walk into, where they will be surrounded by plastic waste. The idea is that this will be a somewhat unsettling experience, connecting with people emotionally. The central area will be a space of contemplation where visitors might bring an offering to reflect upon. There will be lighting, a sound-scape and interactive elements to give feedback regarding people’s thoughts about plastic.

A large vacant city centre property has been found through the ‘Meanwhile Use’ scheme coordinated by Plymouth Culture, and doors should be open from mid-Feb 2022. Workshops and other activities will take place in February and March, with the venue becoming a space for exchange of ideas, collaboration, education and creative workshops, as well as providing the space for the build. We will be inviting other local

environmental groups to join us and showcase their work during British Science Week 11-20 March, and plan to hold a special event 25-27th March to include invited speakers, art work and performance.

Judy and Kate are fortunate to have secured the services of Morgan Sindall Contractors to project manage the build, to help with the construction and advise regarding Health and Safety aspects.

The public Facebook page WASTE…OF OUR TIME will be used to keep all those interested abreast of developments. Regular press statements and interviews will be given wherever possible.

Fotonow are creating a film document with French subtitles, and short clips for social media feeds to promote the project. The Hundred Hands group may feature us in the ‘We Tell Your Story’ project.

The University of Plymouth are helping with evaluation of the project through feedback from workshops and questionnaires.

At the end of March 2022 there will be an Open Event with speakers and performers, welcoming all involved to experience the finished sculpture, to generate publicity and question further our relationship with plastic.

After 31st March it is hoped to move the sculpture to another venue, ideally outside in a public space, for others to contemplate and experience.

The project currently has limited funding from PCC through the Preventing Plastic Pollution Coalition and Interreg EU, but further funding is urgently required to staff the Meanwhile Use premises for optimal engagement with the public and groups, and run more workshops in a Covid-safe way. Such activities are crucial to changing entrenched attitudes and habits concerning consumerism at the expense of the environment and our future.

Describe how you will work together to achieve this

Kate Crawfurd has worked as a practicing artist for over 20 years. She is currently Director of Precious Plastic Plymouth and Tavistock, a creative engagement CIC aiming to reduce plastic waste and inspire respect for the environment. This project runs public demonstrations, workshops and school outreach activities.

Other notable recent public artworks include:

The Ocean Organ 2021, an interactive installation visualizing Ocean Acidification, produced as a Creative Associates of the University of Plymouth

Eco-Days Exhibition 2021 at Ocean Studios, Royal William Yard

Forget-me-Nots of Remembrance 2021-An environmental mural sponsored by Plymouth Octopus Project at Plymouth Play Scrapstore

She has strong connections with schools across the city and is currently engaged in a Take a Part schools project.

Judy Harington took early retirement from the NHS to follow her passion for art, studying at Exeter College and subsequently Plymouth College of Art where she graduated with distinction in 2019. Her work revolves around environmental issues, recently focussing on plastic pollution. She produced a performance ‘Drowning in Plastic’ (2018) and subsequently a short film ‘Unnatural Tides’ (2019). She organised a Mini Symposium at Plymouth College of Art entitled ‘Plastics and You’ (Mar 2019) with invited speakers from UoP, Environment Plymouth and the recycling industry. Her dissertation “Connecting through the Senses: Communicating the Anthropocene Through Performance Art” informs her practice going forwards as her main aim is to engage people in the issues we face and discuss how we can address them. Art is a powerful tool in this respect.

Judy has considerable teaching experience and has run numerous workshops at Plymouth College of Art, at Tate Modern for Tate Exchange.

She worked with Rhizome Artists’ Collective to produce an evolving art installation and performance painting All At Sea at Tinside Lido for Plymouth Art Weekender, 25-27 Sept 2020.

Recent exhibitions include Devon Open Studios with Rhizome Artists’ Collective featuring ‘Wrapped’, a plastic installation (11-26 Sept 2021), and extensive work including giant jellyfish from plastic packaging in Saltash Library, Sept-Nov 2021. She

exhibited beach finds: ‘Washed Up’ and other work for the Triad Exhibition at Leadworks, Plymouth, 19-21 Nov 2021.

Judy and Kate have strong links with Plymouth College of Art (PCA), the University of Plymouth (UoP) and numerous small environmental organisations across the region. They come together in this project to share their passions and connections with a common goal. They have already trialled a jointly-run workshop and have many ideas for the way forwards.

Plymouth Scrapstore is collaborating with Precious Plastics to help source materials for the project and provide space for outreach workshops if required. Their expertise is much welcomed by Judy and Kate, who will promote this amazing resource through the project.

Environment Plymouth and Plastic Free Plymouth have long been advocating community and business engagement to reduce our reliance on plastic, particularly single-use plastics, and have offered to support and promote the project through their contacts and on social media. In return the project will encourage businesses and individuals to sign up to the Plastic Free Plymouth pledge to reduce single-use plastic.

Plymouth City Council are funding the project primarily through the Plastic Pollution Coalition and Interreg EU, and their support is greatly appreciated.

Judy and Kate are grateful to Hannah Harris of Culture Plymouth who is coordinating the Meanwhile Use project, providing us with a temporary venue for our work, which they hope will be a shop-front venue in the shopping precinct, enabling engagement with passers-by.

A major collaboration is with Morgan Sindall Construction who have kindly offered to oversee the build of the giant spiral maze. There have already been meetings of the relevant parties.

During the first round, POP members were asked to advise you. Tell us what happened. What are your reflections? Have you gained new insight? New partners?

The project has already built relationships with several schools, City College, Brownie groups, Art and Energy, CleanOur Patch, Rame Peninsular Beach Care, Seadream Education CIC, Pollenize, Barbican Rebels, Plymouth Children in Poverty, Green Shoots Eco, The Sustainability Institute, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, Devon Contract Waste, MVV Waste to Energy Facility, CTiP, RIO and Nudge, as well as receiving offers of help from numerous individuals. Students from UoP and PCA are likely to be assisting with the project.

Collaborators

● Livewell South West

● Heads Count (Colebrook South West)

● Hope in the Heart CIC

● Devon Mind

● Marbles Lost and Found

● Truwellbeing

● You’re Not Alone Plymouth

Collective’s aims and ideas

We know from research and personal testimony that empowerment is a crucial component of mental health recovery. This evidence also shows that when professionals and people with lived experience bring their knowledge together to support others in learning about recovery, this can be highly empowering. A good example is the development of ‘recovery colleges’, which provide open access courses to anyone in the community with an interest in mental health. All courses are co-produced by professionals and people with lived experience and support people to learn about recovery and explore different ways of understanding mental health and improving wellbeing.

Although Plymouth has a thriving mental health peer support community, there is limited co-production or opportunity for learning about mental health recovery in the community. We are a group of mental health professionals and people with lived experience of mental health difficulties wanting to work together to share our knowledge, to inspire and support others. We aim to co-produce a series of educational workshops on recovery and wellbeing topics that will be open to anyone with an interest in learning about mental health. The workshops will take place in community venues and be free of charge.

We hope that these workshops will have similar benefits to those that have been found in the evaluation of recovery colleges: supporting people to manage their mental health and move forward in their lives, increasing social support and reducing stigma. We will evaluate our workshops by asking people to complete a short questionnaire about what they have gained from it. We hope that the workshops will enable people to feel more confident in sharing their own experiences of mental health, and perhaps become involved in developing and delivering workshops themselves. We will gather expressions of interest, to build a local network of experts by experience so that we can continually build on what we can provide. We also aim to collate information about the

range of mental health resources available locally so that we can signpost effectively and enable our participants to follow up on learning from the workshops.

If we are able to secure funding we will use this to pay for:

• The time of our unsalaried contributors. Many of our members with lived experience have given their time voluntarily to developing the project and are either unwaged or self-employed and it is important to offer payment for their contribution. A similar project in Devon, the Devon Recovery Learning Community, pays tutors at a rate of £10 per hour, with an hour’s preparation fee for every hour of live workshop time (e.g. delivering a 2.5 hour course would have a payment of £50).

• We expect that the majority of any funding would therefore be directed to small community organisations focussed on peer support and learning from lived experience. However, a small portion may be used to reimburse the larger organisations, Colebrook SW and Devon Mind, for their expertise in service user engagement and the logistical support that they can offer.

• Consumable materials: we will probably mostly use existing resources held by our members but we may want to produce handouts or other teaching materials.

• Publicity and online information: as well as using social media to publicise our work, we will produce some physical publicity material (posters and flyers) and develop our own website where people can access online resources to support their ongoing learning, whether or not they are able to attend courses in person.

• Community venues: we will attempt to identify venues that are free of charge but we may need to make use of some venues with fees attached.

We have conducted a small survey to establish what content people using and working in mental health services would find most helpful. The most popular responses were: learning about ways of coping with mental health difficulties, hearing lived experience, learning about extreme moods and the effects of trauma. We have also had some feedback suggesting that people are interested in learning more about medication and medication withdrawal. Our initial workshops will therefore aim to have this focus, although we have a wide range of expertise in the group which we will shape what we can deliver.

How will they work together to achieve this?

We are working together as we recognise the power of co-produced knowledge. We believe that through collectively offering our different forms of expertise, we can give people hope, challenge stigma and support people to move forward from mental health challenges. Many of our lived experience contributors have worked together before, as members of a strong peer support community but group working across the professional – peer support boundary is a new initiative. Our professional members have knowledge and experience of co-production processes and we have quickly been able to establish a shared vision and goals.

The contribution from each member will be:

Livewell SouthWest- Elina Baker, Claire Whiter, Flippa Watkeys (Mental health professionals). We have theoretical and clinical knowledge about the causes of mental health challenges and strategies for managing them effectively . We have experience of facilitating co-production and bringing recovery education to the community and belong to national professional networks that can offer support, advice and resources.Colebrook Southwest- Heads Count. We are a user led network for mental health service users, carers and everyone with experience of or affected by mental health matters. We support people to get involved and be heard, and raise awareness about the importance of mental health and wellness. We can contribute to the planning and development of workshops through bringing our own expertise by experience, as well as the views and experiences of our members. We also have a member with graphic design skills who has contributed to the development of our logo.Hope in the Heart is a Community Interest Company led by Tam Martin Fowles. Our focus is on inspiring improved mental health and wellbeing. All our staff and directors have lived experience of mental health and associated issues. We offer training to organisations as well as workshops and courses for community members. We bring knowledge and experience of co-production and of delivering community workshops to support mental health recovery and learning from lived experience.

Devon Mind- We are a mental health provider who already provide a range of courses and peer support groups. We are interested in broadening the range of opportunities that are available for learning about mental health recovery and are keen to support the development of more co-produced content. In particular we are offering support to the group with administration and publicity.

Marbles Lost and Found- a mental health information hub, community website and support group, run by Nicky Nurrish, a person with lived experience. Marbles offers anyone struggling with mental health issues support, guidance and wellbeing tips and tools from those with lived and professional experience. I am able to contribute knowledge from personal experience and the experiences of my contributors and users. I am also able to offer support with website hosting and developing social media.

Truwellbeing – Life and Health Coaching, founded and run by Bianca Flood, who has lived experience of depression, C.F.S and Fibromyalgia, Bianca offers a combination of counselling, coaching, nutritional therapy and neuro-linguistic programming to help people develop a holistic focus for their recovery. Bianca brings both expertise by experience and skills and experience in running group workshops to support recovery in relation to stress, anxiety, low mood and physical conditions exacerbated by stress.

You’re Not Alone Plymouth is a support group run by Hayley Burbage who has lived experience. We hold weekly coffee mornings as well as having online support via a private Facebook group. I am able to bring expertise on developing support groups and knowledge from my own and my member’s experiences on what might be helpful in planning and developing workshops.

During the first round, POP members were asked to advise you. Tell us what happened. What are your reflections? Have you gained new insight? New partners?

We had some generally positive feedback and learnt about the work of Wellbeing Workshops CIC and the good work they are doing around using ideas from positive psychology to develop wellbeing in communities. We saw this as a complementary offer to what we are planning which will focus more specifically on recovery from mental health difficulties. We were encouraged to think about evaluating our workshops and also how to build from an initial small-scale offer, developing a bank of resources. Consequently we have agreed to develop evaluation questionnaires, proactively gather expressions of interest from participants to build a group of experts by experience and develop our own website where our teaching resources can be accessed and we can provide information about other resources in the city that can support someone with the next steps in their recovery.