The Elephants Trail Project

The final episode for the lived experience employment series is looking at the barriers and benefits of lived experience employment.

Join Charlotte from Shelter, Kelvin from ICM, Christine HR manager from the private sector and Anne from DWP as they explore the myths and misconceptions about employing people with lived experience and how to successfully embed lived experience employment well into the world of employment.

With more organisations wanting to employ individuals with lived experience to improve services, today’s episode explores how it feels to be employed in those roles and carry that ‘label’. Join Charlotte, Catherine, Roxy and Matt as they discuss how employers can better support staff with lived experience, the importance of choice and having ownership over sharing individual stories, and the recognition of the value that individuals with lived experience bring to the table.

Join Charlotte from ICM, Carol from the Good Employment Charter, Mark from CGL and Pete from CLI as they explore whether there is a glass ceiling for people with lived experience of multiple disadvantage when wanting to further their career. This episode explores the changes that can be made in workplace practice and culture to open up opportunities for people with lived experience and enable them to progress in their career.

ICM GROW TRAINEESHIPS
Inspiring Change Manchester (ICM) is a partnership project led by Shelter with support from organisations Back on Track, Community-Led Initiatives and Big Life Group as part of the National Lottery Funded Fulfilling Lives Programme. The programme works with people experiencing multiple disadvantage to support them to overcome systemic barriers and reach their full potential. They work together to create systems change with a view to tackle inequalities and improve access to support.

ICM designed the GROW Traineeship programme to help break down barriers into work for people with lived experience of multiple disadvantages. The programme created paid placements to provide practical experience and the support and guidance to secure further paid employment, while drawing on their lived expertise to improve our practices as an organisation.

With ICM coming to a close in 2022 this podcast series delves into the practicalities of lived experience employment, raising awareness of it for organisations and people alike while addressing the more challenging aspects of delivering programmes like these successfully.

In this episode we speak to Jules ( from Elephants Trail ) and Rob from MAD Theatre about the comedic and irreverent approach MAD takes to encouraging more participation in arts and drama by people normally excluded or who don’t think theatre is for them. Theatre and drama is often seen as a Middle class thing .Rob and Jill turn that premise on its head to bring fun , community led productions made by working class people, about working class life - with a good dose of song and dance thrown in for good measure. Jules tells us of how joining the group helped her realise a childhood dream and speaks of how this supportive community of people of all ages has helped her and others .

With Mental Health services in crisis and the numbers of people seeking support rising by the day , peer support has become a regular community response to a lack of commissioned mental health provision. In this podcast I speak with Mike , founder of Talk about it mate , about the importance of providing services that are responsive to mens needs , that address the stigma of opening up and sharing struggles and the need for communities to be better resourced and equipped to continue to provide valuable support to everyone before crisis hits. We discuss the benefits of talk therapy, some of the barriers to accessing therapeutic support and we find out what the future has in store for Talk about it mate.

We join Rebecca Jackson to discuss the Speak their name quilt project how art and crafts has supported herself and others manage the grief and trauma of losing a loved one to suicide and the difficulty of accessing appropriate support for those experiencing what is often a complex and traumatic bereavement . Rebecca shares her experience of encountering inadequate Mental health services, the intrusive inquest process and why in the end her search for support led her to set up her own group where she now supports others navigating life through this difficult journey.

We continue our conversations on creative activism by going into the communities of Bury and Manchester to speak to the people involved in grass roots initiatives , systems change and community activism.
In this episode I speak to Ummrana Farooq, founder of the BAME Project in Bury. BAME stands for Believe in yourself , Achieve your goals, Maintain resilience and Exceed your targets and offers grassroots, inclusive, community support to anyone in Bury that needs it.
From an early age Ummrana has been raising funds for charitable causes and dedicated much of her time to improving life for those in the community who may be facing difficulty or hardship. Here we discuss what inspired her to become involved in supporting the people in her home town , discover some of the many initiatives Ummrana and her team have started and who they help and find out why the BAME project is such an important part of community life.

Episode 4
Members of ET have been working alongside Katy Rubin (Legislative Theatre) GM Housing First and Our Agency in Greater Manchester over the last few months to create a piece of theatre to address some of the issues encountered in relation to housing and homelessness services. We wanted to interview Katy a native New Yorker and Matt Kidd a native northerner and find out -What happens next and how can people get involved?

Episode 3
Members of ET have been working alongside Katy Rubin (Legislative Theatre) GM Housing First and Our Agency in Greater Manchester over the last few months to create a piece of theatre to address some of the issues encountered in relation to housing and homelessness services. We wanted to interview Katy a native New Yorker and Matt Kidd a native northerner and find out how accessible is LT and what are some of the challenges that arise during the process ?

Episode 2
Members of ET have been working alongside Katy Rubin (Legislative Theatre) GM Housing First and Our Agency in Greater Manchester over the last few months to create a piece of theatre to address some of the issues encountered in relation to housing and homelessness services. We wanted to interview Katy a native New Yorker and Matt Kidd a native Manc and ask What kind of issues does Legislative Theatre address ?

Episode 1 .
Members of ET have been working alongside Katy Rubin (Legislative Theatre) GM Housing First and Our Agency in Greater Manchester over the last few months to create a piece of theatre to address some of the issues encountered in relation to housing and homelessness services. We wanted to interview Katy a native New Yorker and Matt Kidd a native Manc to explore what Legislative Theatre is and how it works?