The Brief

We completed a series of short films for Llanelli based arts and wellbeing charity People Speak Up. We focused on the sessions that they are running for people of all ages and how they are inspiring creativity in several different ways.

The main emphasis of the series was demonstrating the positive feeling that people have had from taking part in these sessions and gaining perspectives from both the people running the sessions as well as the participants.

These films were vital towards their fundraising efforts and the impact that they have managed to have on the community. They have also been able to use these videos to apply for fundraising grants.

The Process

During the process we had people run the sessions explain about what they do. Examples we gave of programmes being ran were Creative Kinship, Face to Face service, Creative 1-1 and Creative Home Delivery.

We managed to capture much of what the services provide and about the environment that is created by those involved. One of the main things we gathered was that the environment was very welcoming to people and many spoke about how they can open up about their feelings and emotions and feel like they will not be judged.

Inclusivity was also promoted was through the volunteering programmes at the company with a host of young people also keen to volunteer for the charity. From one of the young people we interviewed, he was particularly keen on helping bridge the gap between the older generation and the younger generation and People Speak Up shared this view by allowing them to visit old people in care homes and helping run and organize activities.

One of the main points that we featured in one of our films was about how the company is also including carers as part of the process as well by allowing them to form a closer connection with residents in these sessions.

The video series was all about demonstrating positive experiences, one example we addressed was movement artist Sterling and how she had experience in working with young children but was also having more of a focus on older people and arranging home visits in with the aim of bringing positive experiences for the older generation in regards to being creative. We also highlighted the impact that People Speak Up’s activities are having on those with health issues with our video that focused on the creative 1-1 class speaking about the links between music and dementia with one example being Jean and how she could identify rock and roll songs.

We managed to capture a range of different shots throughout the films highlighting what goes on in the sessions. This was beneficial due to the range of different sessions provided by People Speak Up in order to show off how much they have enjoyed.

We are very passionate about the Welsh language and about people doing more to incorporate it into their way of working. During many of our videos we managed to upload both Welsh and English subtitles and managed to conduct an interview in Welsh which was great for us.

The Result

We managed to capture the main essence of what People Speak Up are all about and how their values are reflected in their work. They have consistently looked to push creativity as part of their efforts to improve people’s well-being and get people to tell their stories. This is one of our core values at Stori Cymru as many of our projects have been about inspiring creativity and encouraging brands to tell their brand story in order to give your business more authenticity.

As well as matching our ethos, the series also reflected on the core values that People Speak Up have listed on their website, their core values are listening, inclusivity, collaboration, learning and people led. This was best demonstrated in our fifth film when they were able to bring a whole host of people together to demonstrate the skills they have learned from their time working for the project.

We were also very happy with the people we interviewed as they very clearly demonstrated what People Speak Up’ projects are all about. It is also about including the purpose of their work and the benefits they have seen for both themselves and others.

If you’re a business that has a brand story that you want to get out to a wider audience. Get in touch with us at Stori Cymru to see what we can offer.

Our Work

In our first film which can be found at the top of the page we focused on who exactly are People Speak Up and what they look to provide the community. In this film we placed a great emphasis on storytelling and how people have been able to find a voice by participating in the events hosted. Many have taken pleasure from just meeting new people and being able to relate to life experiences. At Stori Cymru human stories are the embodiment of what we do and this video perfectly aligned the ethos of both Stori Cymru and People Speak Up.

This film captured the Creative Kinship project designed to tackle isolation and loneliness. We managed to highlight the story of one lady who participated in the project who had previously enjoyed painting but hadn’t continued since the loss of her husband, People Speak Up managed to reignite her enjoyment for painting. We also documented the story of Ysgol Gyfyn Gwyr helping bridge the gap between generations by volunteering at a local care home. We really captured the sense of pride in this project for both old and young people and how this helped tackle loneliness.

We focused on the wellbeing day service aimed at unpaid care workers and facilitators going to homes. We managed to get people to reflect on experiences and provide examples of how the service has been beneficial for them in communicating with other people. We highlighted Roy’s story and how he was able to interact with others and really enjoyed the service provided, Roy and his partner spoke about how welcoming and friendly everyone involved was and that they just felt like regular people rather than outsiders. We felt that this was such an important story to cover as this was a powerful story for us to tell and that regardless of your situation you are made to feel at home and we really gathered that when we spoke with Roy and that the people involved really care about what they do and making other people’s lives better.

The creative 1-1 project is all about creating a space for carers and the people they care for to have a deeper connection through being creative. For this video we managed to document Jean’s story of struggling with dementia and how she is treated like any other person at these events rather than a person with dementia. One theme picked up in this video as well as every other is the sense of community and establishing strong connections and being treated like any other person regardless of where you are at in life.

This film focused on the home delivery service and having people going out visiting people in homes and care homes. This was a very powerful film for us as there were many stories for us to tell. We covered Sterling and how she was able to support old people which was very different to her previous experience and Narissa being able to help the person she cared for the confidence to be able to sing again following her brain condition. We also covered the effort from People Speak Up to bring people together at their Llanelli hub and uniting all those benefitting from the work that People Speak Up have done.