TWITTER
NEWS
[Posted on: 8 December 2011]
New Writing Group: 'Write With Us'
Karen Lewis and Katherine Hughes are pleased to be working with Tenovus on an exciting new project called “Write with Us.” This is a series of informal, workshop sessions for people living with a diagnosis of cancer, who wish to explore the possibilities of creative writing. No previous experience is needed. Please see the attached flyer for more details.
 |
[Posted on: 21 November 2011]
Participatory Arts and Well-being
Karen presented the “Men Who Care" work at a symposium organised by the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling at the University of Glamorgan in November. This event formed part of the AHRC funded Connected Communities programme called - Participatory Arts and Well-Being: Past and Present Practices - whose objectives include identifying the diverse definitions of well-being that are operating within participatory community arts practice and establishing both historical and contemporary examples of best practice from a range of projects.
Karen Lewis, StoryWorks, presenting work from the "Men Who Care' project at the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling, University of Glamorgan.
Gwent Missing Children
This Autumn we have been working with The Gwent Missing Children project to gather stories from children and young people who “go missing”. Lisa, Karen, Marina and Steve ran a day workshop with a group of young people in Newport and Tracy has been working individually with others to record their stories. The themes to emerge from the stories shared with us will be written up in a report and a DVD will be produced of the digital stories created. The purpose is to offer insight to enable the Gwent Missing Children project to develop its work further in this field.
Project Aspect
Karen is working with Professor Mike Wilson at Falmouth University as Co-Investigator on this exciting research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Research Assistants Sarah and Francesca have been busy creating digital stories and they are now on the website: www.projectaspect.org
Swn
Lisa has been busy gathering stories from people whose experiences as volunteers at Cardiff’s music festival SWN has enabled them to develop their skills within the creative industries and further their employment prospects. We are all looking forward to seeing the digital stories that she has created with people, which are sure to be inspiring and uplifting.
[Posted on: 5 July 2011]
New StoryWorks Associate
StoryWorks looks forward to working with new Associate Katherine Hughes, developing work around the account she has written of her experience of breast cancer.
Katherine Hughes, New StoryWorks Associate
 |
Read 'Achieving Wellbeing After Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Story' by Katherine Hughes |
[Posted on: 15 June 2011]
International Digital Storytelling Festival at Aberystwyth Arts Centre
StoryWorks will be running a session at the 6th International Festival of Digital Storytelling at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Friday June 17th. Lisa Heledd Jones will be presenting some of the work she has done across public services and exploring the range of methods the StoryWorks team has developed to work with stories of patients, carers and service users.
Lisa Heledd Jones, Development Officer StoryWorks
International Narrative Practitioner Conference
Members of the StoryWorks team are pleased to have been invited to contribute to the 5th International Narrative Practitioner Conference to be held at Glyndwr University on 20th and 21st June 2011. Karen Lewis is keynote speaker and the team will also be presenting the work of the “Men Who Care” project.
University of Glamorgan’s Talent publication
The work of the StoryWorks team was featured in the Spring edition of the University of Glamorgan’s Talent publication. Talent is a bilingual publication that contains articles that showcase excellence of the University’s work in research, teaching, learning, enterprise, knowledge transfer and student successes in these areas. The feature highlighted the work we did with colleagues at Cancer Genetics Service Wales to develop the StoryBank project.
[Posted on: 17 March 2011]
Mind Cymru - Online launch of digital stories
Digital Stories produced by StoryWorks with Mind Cymru are now available to view online. These powerful stories portray the experience of people living with mental distress in Wales which will assist in tackling the discrimination faced by the one in four people who experience mental distress.
Lindsay Foyster, Director of Mind Cymru, said: "We know that the process of people telling their stories can be hugely beneficial, not just to the person sharing their experiences, but also the population more widely."
[Posted on: 16 February 2011]
All the projects funded by the Beacon for Wales were showcased at the Welsh Assembly’s Pierhead building in Cardiff Bay on January 26th 2011. It was a great opportunity to meet other research teams and to share the work we have done with The Fostering Network on the Men Who Care project.
Beacon for Wales Showcase: Karen Lewis, StoryWorks; Maria Boffey, The Fostering Network; Leighton Andrews, Minister for Children, Education & Lifelong Learning, Welsh Assembly Government.
[Posted on: 18 January 2011]
Work in Progress:
Newport Social Services
We have just begun to work with Newport Social Services, facilitating a series of workshops with a range of service users who will share their stories with us and each other. The stories of their experiences as users of Newport Social Services will be fed back to staff and used in training and future service development.
Diabetes Cymru
We are working with Diabetes Cymru to produce a series of digital stories with people who live with diabetes. These stories will be used in training sessions and education campaigns to raise awareness of the issues surrounding diabetes.
Sustainable Living – Low Carbon Works
We are just coming to the end of our part in an action research project with colleagues at the University of Bath’s Low Carbon Works team. Lisa Heledd Jones has been working with them to create a series of digital stories from older people living in the village of Chew Magna, on the theme of sustainable living and the reduction of our carbon footprint We held a celebration evening at the end of September to screen the digital stories and explore the storytellers’ experiences of the process. The digital stories will be shown to a series of focus groups in the coming months to evaluate their impact. This work has been funded by DEFRA and the findings will be published next year.
Velindre Cancer Centre
Work continues at Velindre Cancer Centre, with the latest staff training session being recently delivered by Karen Lewis and Gilly Adams. Karen and Gilly used the digital stories that Lisa Heledd Jones created with patients at Velindre to stimulate discussion amongst staff.
Chronic Conditions Management
We have just started working with NLIAH on a piece of evaluation looking at the impact of the Chronic Conditions Management Demonstrator projects across three sites in Wales. Over the next few months we will be gathering a range of stories from patients and carers, highlighting their experiences of the Demonstrator projects. Several members of the StoryWorks team will be involved, along with our colleague, Dr Rhian Morgan, from the Telling Stories project.
Internet Privacy
We are continuing our work with the EFFEKT project with colleagues at Cardiff University, led by Jeremy Hilton. This is a piece of research looking at issues of internet privacy and we are working with researchers at Cardiff to explore storytelling approaches to knowledge transfer. We have trained academic staff in digital storytelling methodology and will soon begin gathering stories of people’s experiences of internet privacy issues.
[Posted on: 14 December 2010]
The Aspect Project
StoryWorks is very pleased to be a partner in The Aspect Project, an exciting research collaboration that has just been launched. The research team is led by Prof. Mike Wilson of University College Falmouth with Karen Lewis of StoryWorks, University of Glamorgan. Digital media company White Loop is the technology partner and The Department of Energy and Climate Change is the public partner and primary end user.
The ASPECT project was born from a more general search for new tools of public engagement – ones which would at least improve on the established forms of “public consultation” and use techniques of first person real-life storytelling instead. By this we mean allowing people to talk in their own language and form of expression; they can begin with their own initial thoughts, and move towards their own conclusions; and they can express what they have seen and know of the past and present and what they imagine about the future.
This is the basic thinking behind ASPECT, which is a pilot project funded over an 18 month period by the Arts and Humanities Research Council seeking to engage people in, and enable them to contribute to, public policy on climate change. The ASPECT website will be launching shortly.
----------
Equality and Human Rights Commission: Digital Stories - Not just another statistic
The digital stories produced on behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (Wales) are now available to view online. Storytellers from across Wales discuss the attitudes of family, friends, local communities, and also their experiences with public services as part of the research project 'Not just another statistic'.
[Posted on: 26 November 2010]
The StoryBank was launched last night at the University of Glamorgan’s Atrium campus in Cardiff.
Cancer Genetics StoryBank launch: Karen Lewis (Director, StoryWorks) and Dr. Rachel Iredale (Senior Research Fellow, Cancer Genetics Service for Wales Research Team) introduce the StoryBank to Rt. Hon. Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales.
Opened by the Rt. Hon. Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales, the launch was attended by over 100 people, including many of the wonderful cancer patients, carers and families who shared their stories for the wider benefit of others in the same position. The StoryBank website is now live and can be found at: www.cancergeneticsstorybank.co.uk
Some of the team involved in the Cancer Genetics StoryBank (l-r): Lisa Heledd Jones and Karen Lewis (StoryWorks); Jenny Hilgart, Dr. Lisa Mundy and Dr. Rachel Iredale (Cancer Genetics Service for Wales Research Team).
[Posted on: 25 October 2010]
We have been working with the The Cancer Genetics Service for Wales (CGSW) - an all-Wales NHS service for anyone who has a family history of cancer and who is worried that they may be at increased risk of inheriting cancer – to produce digital stories for the StoryBank project.
StoryBank is a collection of patient stories, which has been developed, in response to patient feedback, by Cardiff University’s Cancer Genetics Research Team. The Cardiff research team is led by Dr Rachel Iredale and is currently funded by Tenovus, the cancer charity, and the StoryWorks team is led by Karen Lewis and Lisa Heledd Jones. Researchers from both teams have collected and produced digital stories from 23 patients who volunteered to share their story about their journey through CGSW.
The patient stories cover a range of topics such as living with cancer; living with the risk of inherited cancer, and the implications this has for themselves and their families.
It is hoped the stories will be accessed by current and future patients, as well as the general public, as a source of information and support. A dedicated website has been created to host the stories (www.cancergeneticsstorybank.co.uk) and the website will be officially launched at an event held at the University of Glamorgan’s ATRiuM campus in Cardiff on 25th November 2010.
The event will be opened by Rt Hon Carwyn Jones AM, First Minister of Wales and will be attended by the storytellers and their families, staff at University of Glamorgan and CGSW, and others interested in cancer, genetics and promoting patient involvement in healthcare across Wales.
----------
NLIAH Training Workshop
We recently completed a training workshop for staff at NLIAH teaching them the basics of digital storytelling techniques. They plan to use this methodology in their work in the future. The workshop was led by Carwyn Evans and Tracy Pallant.
----------
Men who care: experiences and reflections from male foster carers
Karen Lewis and Dr Steve Killick have been working with The Fostering Network on a project funded by the Beacon For Wales. The aim of the project was to collect stories from male foster carers, highlighting their experiences. The stories have been produced in a book “Men who Care” that will be distributed to local authorities and foster carers across Wales and beyond, via The Fostering Network.
>>>> Download a PDF version of the "Men Who Care" book <<<<
----------
An Introduction to Storytelling in Organisations
Karen Lewis and Gilly Adams recently delivered a one day workshop for Participation Cymru on the theme: “An Introduction to Storytelling in Organisations.” The training was held in Cardiff and was very well received. A second session is planned for March in Wrexham.
[Posted on: 17 May 2010]
Storytelling and Health | voices of experience
StoryWorks and Velindre Cancer Centre collaborated to host a symposium exploring the application of stories in health care settings on Friday May 14th. Around 70 people attended the event at the University’s ATRiuM in Cardiff, and the overwhelming response from delegates was extremely positive. Keynote presentations were delivered by Michael Murray, Professor of Applied Social and Health Psychology, Keele University and Dr Jonathon Gray, Joint Director, 1000 Lives campaign. Workshop sessions included: Prof Maggie Kirk, Dr Emma Tonkin & Dr Rhian Morgan, University of Glamorgan: “Telling Stories – Understanding real life genetics”; Jane Price, Patient Support Specialist, Aneurin Bevan Health Board: “I want to tell you a story”; Steve Killick, Clinical Child Psychologist: “A few home truths: exploring family storytelling and its role in mental health and well-being”. The event was chaired by Marcus Longley, Director & Professor of Applied Health Policy, Welsh Institute for Health & Social Care.
The final session of the day was presented by Lisa Miller, Velindre Cancer Centre, and Karen Lewis, StoryWorks, outlining the work that has been undertaken at Velindre over the past few months. This session included the screening of some very powerful digital stories created by patients, followed by author Michelle Williams-Huw reading from her book “My Mummy wears a wig does yours?” based on her experiences as a patient at Velindre.
StoryWorks Associate Gilly Adams talked to Michelle about her experiences and motivation for writing her book , and her comments clearly chimed with other cancer survivors in the audience.
[Posted on: 10 May 2010]
Storytelling and Health | voices of experience
This symposium is fully booked. However spaces may occur at short notice due to delegate cancellation. If you are interested in attending we would recommend that you check the booking page for current availability: www.storytellingandhealth.eventbrite.com.
[Posted on: 21 April 2010]
Research Launch: Lowcarbonworks
StoryWorks are collaborating with Bath University's Lowcarbonworks project to create digital stories with members of the community in the Chew Valley. The stories produced will form part of a DEFRA funded research project looking at how digital stories may inspire change in others. For more information about our launch event and how you might take part, see the Lowcarbonworks invitation.
To see examples of digital stories that we have produced on a great number of subjects please visit our portfolio.
[Posted on: 20 April 2010]
Conference: The Power of Partnership
Getting End of Life Care Right for People with Dementia in Wales
Held by The National Council for Palliative Care at Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea
Monday 10th May 2010
Speakers include: Dr Jean White, Department for Public Health and Health Professions, Welsh Assembly Government; Baroness Ilora Finlay of Llandaff, Professor of Palliative Medicine, Cardiff University; Ian Thomas, Director of Services, The Alzheimer’s Socieity; Lorraine Morgan, Health, Nursing & Social Care, The Open University in Wales; Dr Tony Bayer, School of Medicine, Cardiff University.
For more information and to book a place on the conference, please download 'The Power of Partnership' pdf.
[Posted on: 7 April 2010]
Symposium: Diary Marker
Storytelling and Health | voices of experience
ATRiuM, University of Glamorgan, Cardiff
Friday 14th May 2010
Please join us as we explore the value and learning that stories have to offer, especially in a health care setting. This event is free of charge, although numbers are limited so early registration is recommended. StoryWorks and Velindre Cancer Centre are working together to deliver the symposium. More details can be found on our Symposium page.
To register your interest please email: mrobert4@glam.ac.uk or Tel: 01443 483070
----------
Equality and Human Rights
We have just completed the creation of some digital stories on behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (Wales). These stories will be used widely to highlight some of the equalities issues faced in the workplace.
[Posted on: 15 March 2010]
Workshop: Looking for the Story
Date : April 28th 2010
Time: 9.30am – 12.30pm
Venue: University of Glamorgan, Glyntaf Campus, Pontypridd
Cost : £30
The Workshop
Using pictures as our starting point, we will explore how we can be more aware of the stories of those who cannot tell their own.
To be effective practitioners and offer compassionate and good care, we need to be able to see each patient as a special and unique individual. In order to do this we need to know as much as possible about that person’s life story and what is happening to them in the here and now.
However, some people find it difficult to communicate their own stories - those with cognitive impairments, speech problems, depression, fear, lack of self worth for example - and we need different techniques to reach them.
Most communication is non-verbal and much is visual. Sight is such a powerful sense. We spend so much time making fast decisions based on what we see. Looking and seeing can make us more informed, more creative in what we do but it can also mislead.
So why do we not spend more time reflecting upon the enormity of the impact visual information has on the way we care for people?
In this workshop we use images of elderly people, sometimes their faces sometimes situations that practitioners will come across.
Using these images in different exercises we will consider:
-
The dangers of categorizing and assuming.
-
Avoidance of visual communication.
-
How we interpret what we see.
-
Acknowledging our feelings triggered by what we see.
-
Encouraging the intelligent use of the imagination.
-
The importance of difference in people.
-
What seeing these people everyday does to the carer.
-
How visual information and finding that person’s story of the here and now can make us more person-centred, interested and effective practitioners.
The stories behind these images will cover the United Nations Principles of Older People: Independence, Participation, Care, Self-fulfilment and Dignity.
Workshop Leaders:
The workshop will be delivered by Gilly Adams and Georgie Meadows, who are both StoryWorks Associates
