Impact case study database

Get Talking delivered a range of impacts for communities based on their interests and place-based needs. The co-production methods drew on lived experiences and enabled community organisations to implement recommendations based on their stakeholders’ needs and views.

1. Increasing access to art for diverse and under-represented groups:

i) Get Talking Appetite

Stoke-on-Trent is the twelfth most deprived English local authority ( Indices of Multiple Deprivation, 2019) and has a cultural participation rate of 34%, one of the lowest in England ( Arts Council England, Active People Survey, 2010). Get Talking increased engagement of people in arts and cultural events in Stoke-on-Trent, and actively involved them in shaping provision. It was used as the evaluation methodology for the large-scale arts programme, Appetite, with 12 people as community researchers reaching a total of 1,224 people who were participants in the first year of the project (between August 2013 and March 2014) [ 5.1b, pp. 59 - 85]: ‘ *Get Talking helped facilitate unbiased conversations with local people about [art]*’ ( 5.1a]. It engaged people who had little experience of the arts sector and had rarely been asked their opinion about engaging with the arts. Between 2013 and 2015 this resulted in increased confidence in communities to debate art and critique art experiences, with audiences more likely to demand quality yet accessible arts from the sector [ 5.1c, p. 37].

Influenced by Get Talking, Appetite then established clear processes for community voices to shape the programme. This included the introduction of the Supper Club as their core community decision-making platform in 2014, with a membership of 20 people (local residents) by December 2020. Appetite can now ‘ very honestly say that the decisions we make are instructed by the people in the local area for the things which they want’ [ 5.1a]. This and the use of creative tools fostered participant skills and confidence, with the result that 2 members gained employment [ 5.1a]. Appetite have significantly changed their approach to community engagement as a result of Get Talking: ‘ As time has gone on you can’t really separate what Appetite does as a program away from Get Talking as a technique’ [ 5.1a]. Given the scale of the Appetite project, with funding of GBP2,999,430 and total audience engagement of 363,779 people between 2013 and 2016, this represents far-reaching impact. The approach that evolved from Get Talking has also been used by Appetite to extend their provision into Newcastle-under-Lyme, a neighbouring area. They used Get Talking’s prior success to develop funding applications that draw on findings and plan new implementations of the methodology.

ii) Reaching for Culture

Reaching for Culture involved members of REACH, an advocacy service for people with learning disabilities, as community researchers in a project identifying the barriers to accessing mainstream arts and culture for people with learning disabilities. 10 people (REACH members) were supported to conduct research with 82 people which amplified the voices of people with learning disabilities within the cultural sector [ 3.4, 5.2a, 5.2b]. The work provided ‘a previously “untapped” platform for people with learning disabilities to be heard’ [ 5.2a]. Engaging with this research enabled REACH members to connect to a wider community through arts and culture: ‘For some individuals, this partnership has been life-changing, it has been a springboard into the heart of community’ [ 5.2c]. It represented a shift away from art as therapy [ 3.4] to emphasising that people with learning disabilities are citizens with rights to accessible arts offerings [ 5.2a]. An accessible report, co-authored with REACH members and ASIST [ 5.2b], was launched during a cofacilitated workshop held on 4^th July 2018. Attended by 25 people (representatives from the cultural sector), ‘This session allowed a gateway to the wider community for people with learning disabilities, which they had not had before’ [ 5.1a]. Following the session, the group, facilitated by Staffordshire University, met with the MP for Stoke-on-Trent South in September 2018 to discuss the research findings, and to ask him to consider the needs of people with learning disabilities in planning for transport and culture in the city. As a result of their involvement with Get Talking research, [REACH] ‘Members are increasingly called on as experts to help a range of professionals within the community to understand how to listen to people with disabilities’ [ 5.2c]. This included being asked to advise on and evaluate the FRONTLINEdance Inclusive Arts Festival in 2019 [ 5.2a]. Community researchers from REACH used Get Talking principles to conduct an evaluation to ensure physical and social access to the event and to develop an understanding of *‘what it is like to go to an event which is led and created by people with learning disabilities’ [ 5.2a].

REACH community researchers also benefitted in terms of increased confidence and independence. One participant described how this had allowed them to take the lead in research sessions, declining offers of support: ‘I spoke up to [a member of support] staff and said, “I don’t need help with this.”’ [ 5.2b, p. 9]. REACH community researchers attended meetings independently without support staff following their involvement with Get Talking. This included a City of Culture Community Network visit to Hull, Get Talking research projects and FRONTLINEdance Inclusive Arts evaluation meetings.

Get Talking has raised REACH’s organisational profile and secured them an Advocacy Award for Outstanding Contribution to Equality and Diversity by making culture accessible to all (2018) [ 5.2d]. Get Talking has become an embedded part of the way that they work: ‘For REACH, the collaboration has brought together all the advocacy work which we do and allowed us to stand out in the sector…we will never go back to not using Get Talking or being influenced by it. It is really embedded within the advocacy and self-advocacy approach that REACH uses’ [ 5.2a].

2. Improving the ability of organisations to respond to unmet need

i) Stoke-on-Trent Hardship Commission

Get Talking Hardship has articulated the challenges that people experiencing hardship face and has made relevant local recommendations. It has legitimated the Hardship Commission’s work to Stoke-on-Trent communities. Between January and July 2019, the Get Talking programme drew on the experiences of local people in Stoke-on-Trent to articulate the ‘trade-offs and daily dilemmas that people face’ [ 5.3a]. It worked with 43 people as community researchers, some of whom had lived experience of hardship and poverty. The community researchers reached 250 people in the city [ 5.3b, pp. 8, 12]. The researchers built rapport with participants through ‘common ground’. As a result: ‘People who had never been listened to before or had never felt comfortable talking about the issues they had faced, could now have a way of talking to someone about their experiences’ [ 5.3a].

Our methods enable organisations to collect evidence from people experiencing poverty. They report that these findings influence their work and policies. The commissioner of the Hardship Commission work said, ‘ I frequently use the findings from the Get Talking project in my [charity] work. The framing and evidence that the project has provided for discussion surrounding Poverty and Hardship has been invaluable’ [ 5.3a].

A report, co-authored with community researchers in July 2019, outlined a series of recommendations. In response, in February 2020 the Hardship Commission reviewed their Terms of Reference to embed working with people with lived experience of hardship and poverty in understanding and addressing hardship [ 5.3c]. As a result, a community researcher joined the Hardship Commission Steering group as a representative of the wider team, embedding the lived experience of hardship into the decision making of the commission and to ‘ provide a continued framework so that the topic of Poverty and Hardship can be continued to be spoken about and influence more inclusive practice’ [ 5.3a].

ii) Vintage Volunteers

The Improving Volunteering Opportunities for People over 60 project worked with Vintage Volunteers to recruit 8 people as community researchers in 2019, reaching 65 people as participants to investigate barriers to volunteering for people over 60: ' The quality of information which we got from people was so much more than we expected. From the research findings, we were able to identify the barriers that older people faced when volunteering' [ 5.5a]. Findings led to Vintage Volunteers amending their approach to recruitment of older volunteers, advertising in ways more accessible to older volunteers, such as radio, local pubs, and word of mouth: ‘we would have never thought about these places without being involved with the research' [ 5.5a]. They also used information from the research to adapt the use of their transport system to respond to volunteers’ needs, enabling volunteers to travel to and from their volunteering opportunities. They have incorporated this change into new funding bids [ 5.5a]. The research shaped their volunteer management system, which influenced other volunteer organisations to change : ‘Changing our own practice has had a knock-on effect in the community… An example of this would be [local group supporting asylum seekers and refugees], they have adopted the understanding of the barriers included in the volunteer management scheme’ [ 5.5a].

3. Sustaining benefits for community researchers

Get Talking community researchers benefit from structured and accredited training and support. This has resulted in improved health and wellbeing through creative opportunities [ 3.5], skills development [ 5.2a, 5.2b] and access level qualifications [ 5.3b, p. 9]. The Keep Talking project focused on addressing barriers for potential community researchers and developing a sustainable model for community research. Due to the COVID crisis in 2020, a community-led approach to research meant adapting the original objectives to ensure group wellbeing. The adoption of creative approaches such as podcasts, recipes, and photography played a key role in supporting the social networks and wellbeing of 17 people as community researchers during this period [ 5.4, p.2]. This included some who were vulnerable and isolated. Get Talking sustained a strong group bond [ 3.5]. A community researcher stated : ‘A sense of camaraderie has developed… There was a sense of wanting to make sure everyone is doing well’ [ 5.4, p. 10]. It also strengthened the partnership with Expert Citizens by building trust and emphasising partnership and cocreation. The Chief Executive of Expert Citizens CIC states: ‘We came up with the destination together, even though we had to reset that destination because of Covid…I think for us, actually working in that way, it has been really quite empowering actually [be]cause very often [when] we get invited into to do stuff decisions have already been made’ [ 5.4 p. 8].

3 people who are community researchers on Keep Talking used the skills and knowledge that they gained to secure paid employment [ 3.5]. 2 are employed by a partner charity (Young Foundation) for post-Covid community research, and 1 secured full-time employment with Expert Citizens ( 5.4, p. 5].

Get Talking has also provided a unique opportunity for community members to access higher education. Get Talking Hardship resulted in Staffordshire University’s Civic Fellowship Scheme [ 5.6]. Civic Fellows act as ‘connectors’ between communities and the University. They benefit from access to University facilities including the library, staff wellbeing services, IT accounts and software. To our knowledge this is the first scheme of its kind in the UK.