Expert Citizens National INSIGHT Awards 2021
There’s just a few weeks left before the Expert Citizens National INSIGHT Awards 2021, we hope you can join us in celebrating the amazing work going on up and down the country to support people experiencing social disadvantage during these exceptional times - don’t delay visit our Eventbrite page today to book your free tickets!
The nominations for this year are now closed – A MASSIVE thank you to everyone that took the time to make nominations, the National INSIGHT Awards simply wouldn’t be possible without you!
The INSIGHT Awards is a celebration of people and organisations that go that extra mile to support people experiencing social disadvantage in all its forms. This year’s INSIGHT Conference and Awards will be held online, taking place on 31st March 2021.
In addition to the prestigious INSIGHT Awards, this years keynote speakers are:
Baljeet Sandhu – The Centre of Knowledge and Equity
Tim Sampey – Chief Executive, Build on Belief
Ric Flo – London based rap artist
Brenda Birungi AKA Lady Unchained - Poet, Broadcaster, Mentor, TedXLondon speaker, Host for National Prison Radio, and Advocate for Life After prison
Jamal Khan - Award-Winning Writer, Poet and Creative Practitioner
From everyone at Expert Citizens – We hope you can join us is making this National INSIGHT Awards the best one yet!
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Social Prescribing: "Thyne medicine is in thy garden"
By Jennifer Spice, Community Researcher
In this guest blog our friend and colleague Jennifer Spice talks to us about the merits of social prescribing and kindly shares with us some of her excellent poetry, be sure to check it out...
"Something that has gone on unnoticed, probably since we could talk, as documented by Hippocrates, in a way we tend to forget, in simple quotes: ‘walking is thyne medicine.”
“Thyne medicine is in thy garden;” definitely a social prescription for us all to remember.
I immersed myself into getting the garden and house straight; changed my diet, thanks to my daughters’ social prescribing: began walking with the girls for Duke of Edinburgh training. I started to energise a little, so volunteered with B Arts bakery. Here I met some excellent people and began to network and explore my options, and think, think about everything."
Click here to read the full article and listen/read to some of Jennifer's poetry
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Meet the Team: Sam Fairbanks
By Sam Fairbanks, Researcher and Evaluator, Expert Citizens CIC
Hi I'm Sam! I first heard about Expert Citizens when I was the successful applicant for a temporary position with VOICES. As a partner of VOICES, I got to work closely with Expert Citizens and was able to see the fantastic work they do. It was towards the end of that contract that a role within Expert Citizens for a Research and Evaluator came available, I took the chance, applied and was very happy to be successful...
Click here to read the full article
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Making It Happen: Reflections on Coproducing The Perspectives Project
Authored by: Fulfilling Lives South East Partnership
"A snapshot of the Fulfilling Lives South East Partnership (FLSE) client group highlighted how substance misuse and mental ill health are the most common problems for people on our caseload (94% and 96% of the project’s caseload respectively). Additionally, there is a high degree of overlap between the two conditions, with 90% of beneficiaries experiencing both.
In response, The Perspectives Project launched earlier this month, explores whether forms of psychological support can better enable access to formal treatment services. One of the key findings from this Project has been how (and to what extent) collaboration between the substance misuse and mental health services can lead to better access outcomes for people with multiple complex needs. As we disseminate our findings through various channels, it would only be fair to turn that lens inwards and look at our own practices of collaborating with people with complex needs in shaping the Project and creating reciprocal opportunities."
Click here to read the full article
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I Am More Than My Survival
By Jamal Khan – Award-Winning Writer & Founder Of Write To Thrive
"Maya Angelou once said that “My mission in life is not merely to survive. But to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style.”
Now the reason why this quote resonates is because; those who remained in my life to this day, whose support was consistent – were never satisfied with me just being here. Surviving wasn’t enough. To see me thrive is everything they worked for. And to this day, I still believe; you that the more I heal, the more I’m able to achieve.
When reflect on my journey, I realise that my growth did not come from employment on mainstream education. That in order to progress and thrive – first, I had to heal. Because how can I focus on anything outside of me, if I wasn’t right within myself?
This understanding became even more evident when at the age of fifteen, I was given a five year prison sentence. Isolation forced me to confront vivid images of my past, as if I was living it all over again. But I wasn’t taught a healthy way in which I could manage these flashbacks and overwhelming thoughts..."
Click here to read the full article
Don't Miss Jamal speaking at this years National INSIGHT Awards, book your free ticket today!
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Co-Pro Stories: Exploring lived experiences of co-production
Expert Citizens have been involved with the Co-production collective for a number of years now and fully support their Co-production mission. The collective have recently produced a document entitled, ‘Co-Pro Stories - Exploring lived experiences of co-production’ which you can read and download below.
About Co-Pro Stories
"The Co-Production Collective wanted to explore people's lived experiences of co-production. Working with People’s Voice Media, they used Community Reporting - a pan-European storytelling movement that supports people to use digital technologies to tell their own stories - to capture a series of dialogue interviews with people who identified as 'co-producers'. These co-producers come from different sectors, work on different projects, and participate in different ways in co-production. The stories they told shone light on what co-production is, what it feels like, and what it can achieve. As part of this piece of work, the co-producers participated in a sense-making session in which they analysed their stories and identified a key set of insights from them. This short report summarises the learnings from the stories.”
Click here to read Co-Pro Stories - Exploring lived experiences of co-production in full
A full analysis of the project is also available here
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