The Empowered Voices Programme is a commitment from us to help the care community learn vital campaigning, activism and public speaking skills. Participants make connections with other influential Care Experienced people and have the opportunity to drive change together. Miranda who completed the programme this year, has outlined her experience and what she has taken from the opportunity.
What are my overall impressions of the programme?
Right from the start, when I chatted with Who Cares? Scotland about what I hoped to get from the Programme and how it would perhaps help me in my life, I was blown away by the warmth and acceptance I felt from the team.
As the weekends got underway, the staff, volunteers, my fellow participants and all the workshop leaders were all incredibly cheerful, positive and welcoming. This created a friendly respectful space where we could laugh, share opinions, work through fears about public speaking (personally speaking this was a big one) and ultimately learn about how we want to use our voices.
I was also so impressed by the organisation of the Programme. Everything was thought of – travel expenses, accommodation, amazing food and snacks – alongside a stimulating, creative and challenging (in a good way) series of workshops and sessions.
What did I learn?
So much! The Programme was structured in a way that allowed me to identify and then build on my skills and knowledge across the three weekends.
Top of my ‘knowledge gained’ list is the insight into the practicalities of campaigning from both a Who Cares? campaign perspective and an external speaker, Laura Anderson (@LessWasteLaura), who shared her experiences of developing a campaign to ban disposable vapes. Having a clear goal, identifying and knowing your audience, along with staying focused, but being flexible enough to make the most of opportunities, all stood out as key aspects of campaigning.
Top of my ‘experience gained’ list was speaking to camera while being interviewed about pizza toppings by Ewan Petrie from STV. If you’d asked me to be interviewed on camera before the EVP, I might have run a mile or two but the opportunity to do this about something light-hearted (although we’ve all had that debate about pineapple…), in a supportive environment with the knowledge that it wasn’t for real, made it safe and enjoyable. As a result, I feel much more prepared for and comfortable (I might even say confident) about the idea of public speaking.
“Perhaps most importantly, for me, as someone who left care over 30 years ago, I now know other care experienced people. I feel very privileged and grateful to have met other people who understand the complexity that care experience can bring to your life. “
My favourite moment?
Oh gosh! Just one? If I have to pick one, it would be the ‘River of Life’ collage I made in the first weekend. This creative activity, designed to encourage reflection on your life journey with the help of symbolism (think deep pools, whirling rapids, plunging waterfalls, and calm flood plains), was an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the changing nature of my life. As I selected patterns from magazines and coloured tissue paper, getting quite messy with glue in the process, I realised my life had started off as a narrow, constrained river with little choice, but over time had become more branched with options where I do have agency and can direct the flow of the river. Well, as much as any river (life) can be directed anyway!
What’s next?
Well for me, I would like to work towards improving the experience for Care Experienced people if they choose to access their care records. I plan to use the skills and knowledge I gained from the EVP to initially help me build a project plan and then take this idea forward into a campaign.
If you feel curious about the Empowered Voices Programme, I’d encourage you to send in an application. You’ll get a chance to chat with the Who Cares Scotland? team before you have to confirm whether you’d like to take part which for me really helped settle some nerves and check it was the right thing to do. I know it can be a bit scary doing something new, with people you might not know, but I’d highly recommend the EVP as a safe and supportive way to expand your comfort zone.
Interested? Find out more and apply for the next round of the Empowered Voices Programme here.
