We’re always looking to work in partnership with others to create projects that inspire change in the world we live in. We want to amplify the voices of people whose stories are unreported or misrepresented by the media, and we want to work with diverse organisations to tackle social inequalities and injustice.
Our project partnerships can start with an idea that we come up with ourselves, an idea that a charity brings to us, or one that we come up with together. As the project idea develops, we build relationships with funders who share our commitment to challenging injustice or disadvantage in society.
If you have an idea for a digital storytelling project, or want to explore new ways to use stories to make an impact, we’d love to hear about it. Contact Jude to start talking about how we might be able to work together.
Find out more about our partnership projects with the Voice of Domestic Workers and with Family Rights Group.
The Voice of Domestic Workers
Future Voices is a unique leadership programme in partnership with The Voice of Domestic Workers that aims to develop a network of confident and skilled migrant domestic workers as public spokespeople to amplify the injustices their community is facing.
The work of The Voice of Domestic Workers seeks to end discrimination and protect migrant domestic workers living in the UK by providing or assisting in the provision of education, training, healthcare and legal advice. They campaign to improve the living and working conditions of migrant domestic workers in the UK. As migrant domestic workers are one of the most vulnerable groups of workers, it is vital that their stories and experiences of injustice are heard, and listened to.
Future Voices builds on our Spokesperson Network model to create bespoke leadership programmes to empower specific communities tackling inequality and injustice as visible public spokespeople. The programme provides participants with the opportunity to take part in practical workshops on blogging, vlogging, interview preparation, campaigning skills, and presentation skills to ensure that they can influence change effectively. The training the spokespeople receive allows them to build their self-confidence and create peer support networks that allow each individual to tell their own story and go on to support others.
Against the backdrop of a hostile environment, a failing NRM system set up to support those who’ve experienced modern day slavery overseas domestic workers continue to be vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking. We know that they are essential workers and should be protected as such in the UK. Through this programme, we aim to make sure that migrant domestic workers are listened to by wider audiences to influence change.
Meet our Future Voices here: https://www.thevoiceofdomesticworkers.com/futurevoices
Family Rights Group
Between 2019-2023, we worked alongside Family Rights Group so that the parents and kinship carer advisory panels have the skills and confidence to advocate for themselves and their communities publicly.
Family Rights Group is a national charity that advises parents, grandparents, relatives and friends about their rights and options when social workers or courts make decisions about their children’s welfare. They work with parents whose children are in need, at risk or who are in the care system as well as with wider family members and friends who are raising children (known as ‘kinship carers’).
Sounddelivery Media began partnering with Family Rights Group in 2019 to deliver practical storytelling training for their kinship carers and families panel.
Since then we have delivered dozens of workshops in blogging, vlogging, audio and social media.
Worked with 25 panel members.
We have co-curated two ‘Our Families, Our Voices’ events for 100+ people working in this child welfare system.
Panel members have grown in confidence, recognising their own expertise and speaking publicly to policy makers, politicians and commissioners of services, including being involved in the government’s 2022 Independent review of children’s social care and in the media. Staff members have gained new skills in digital leadership to further the charity’s mission and have gone on to share stories in media outlets such as Radio 4’s Four Thought.
We have now trained panel members to deliver our workshops in house, so that the skills, knowledge and confidence can be cascaded to anyone that joins. We want our work to have a lasting, sustainable impact for the organisation.
Our work is about long-term relationships. We believe that by working in this way, those with direct experience of the issue they advocate for are supported in a meaningful way, and the legacy of our training will stretch far beyond the programme of workshops.
“Their support and assistance has been invaluable. It’s hard to put into words how much things have changed since I became involved with Sounddelivery Media. I’ve had opinion pieces published in the national press, I have had radio programmes – Woman’s Hour, Radio 4 Four Thought. I have enjoyed the process from beginning to end.”
Angela Frazer-Wicks, Chair of Trustees and Founding Member of Parents Panel, Family Rights Group
“Our collaboration with SDM has been transformative as a charity, it has challenged us in the way we interact with the media and use communications. Most importantly, for parents and kinship carers that we work for the relationship has been both uplifting, it has increased their confidence, but it has also enabled them to use their voice to change the stigma, presumptions, and stereotyping around families involved in the child welfare system. And that is crucial to us being able to change policy and practise for the sake of the children.”
Cathy Ashley, Chief Executive, Family Rights Group