Digital Voice is a not-for-profit social enterprise that has delivered digital inclusion projects nationally and internationally, working with participants often excluded from digital media, and helping individuals and communities to gain a wide range of benefits. Digital Voice received Well Newcastle Gateshead funding for 3 projects: Digital Skills for Chopwell, Inspiring Futures and Chopwell Past & Present.
Digital Voice for Communities
Summary: Inspiring Futures (Delivering specialist digital training to young people at Chopwell Primary School and Chopwell Youth Club to produce digital film reports on life and events in Chopwell.)
Award: £10,000 Area: Chopwell
Beneficiaries: 17 young people and 11 adults participated at the sessions at the school and youth club.
Summary: Digital Skills for Chopwell (A community reporting project producing 'Red Star Reports' and a Chopwell LifeBooks project that produced six digital life stories.)
Award: £10,000 Area: Chopwell
Beneficiaries: 61 residents provided content for Red Star Reports; 6 LifeBooks produced.
Summary: Digital Art for Chopwell (Collecting and archiving historical photographs, photography workshop working in partnership with Chopwell Primary School, producing digital stories about life in Chopwell.)
Award: £10,000 Area: Chopwell
Beneficiaries: 59 participants involved across all different sessions. 150 attendees at Chopwell Past and Present event.
A smiling participant of the Digital Voice: Chopwell Past and Present Project
Digital Skills for Chopwell
This project had two elements of activity; firstly, Digital Voice engaged a group of residents through Chopwell Community Centre for a LifeBooks project. In this project, learners used iPads to make digital multimedia journals of their memories. In partnership with Friends of Chopwell Park, they also started a Community Reporting Unit with an intergenerational group, making documentary style films about positive events happening in Chopwell and coordinating an artistic public consultation about what people think would make a difference in the community. The results of these activities were screened at Chopwell Community Centre as part of an exhibition/celebration event in the autumn and published online.
Digital Story: Red Star Reports, part of Digital Skills for Chopwell from Digital Voice
Inspiring Futures
The course was based around teamworking and developing the participants’ creative, digital skills to create media based on the consultation. The group all had training in a variety of roles such as camera operator, producer, researcher and then they choose a role to work as. They learned digital marketing skills to screen and share their piece online. They developed their creative digital skills but the focus was on employability skills - communication, sharing information within a team and with the public, working to a common goal, feedback, assertiveness, achieving together and online skills. They were also tasked with organising a screening event for their piece which was titled Red Star Reports.
Chopwell Past & Present
Digital Voice for Communities helped create an exhibition and digital resource to celebrate the history of Chopwell based on old photos of the village. They also worked with the school to do a taster during school hours in the art room with year four children and their parents. The final element of the project was engaging both groups in an intergenerational project at the local park Pavilion, making digital stories about the village. The project culminated with an exhibition of the groups’ work in the summer of 2019.
Digital Story: Chopwell Past & Present 1 from Digital Voice
Digital Story: Chopwell Past & Present 2 from Digital Voice
