The Lancashire and Cumbria Community Journalist Network consists of Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) organisations working with communities bearing the brunt of our unequal society. They are supporting people from these communities to share their experiences of living and working conditions that are damaging their health and wellbeing and the health of family members, friends and neighbourhoods. They are writing about the difficulties they face, how they try to manage these and what needs to change for their lives to be better.
We are working to ensure that our community journalists and their stories are heard and have an influence in local decision-making. We also hope that by sharing these stories we will help people living in more advantaged situations to better understand that social inequalities are damaging lives and health, that this is unfair and that we all need to be advocating and acting for change.
Our journalists write under pseudonym. They own the copyright for their stories but they are made freely and openly accessible on this website under a creative common’s license. This allows others to use the stories for non-commercial purposes.
The Lancashire and Cumbria Community Journalists Network is supported by the local health system and Lancaster University. If you are from a VCFSE organisation and are interested in finding out more and/or would like to join the Network please email Michelle at michelle.collins@lancaster.ac.uk
We are also linked to a sister, global initiative – The Other Front Line. If you are interested to find out more here is a link to the website: https://www.otherfrontline.org/
The Organisations involved in the Network
Families at Derian House Children’s Hospice: A group of families and staff who work with children with life-limiting and life-shortening conditions. They will show the unseen challenges of caring for a seriously ill child whilst also contending with social inequalities that can affect the health and wellbeing of their family.
Silence is Broken: A community organisation tackling inequalities in health in the Northwest of England by using the Arts for the catalyst for change and giving the unheard a voice, a hope and a future. The core focus of our group is on children/young people and adults with disabilities and their wider social networks. Providing a range of services including Supported Internship Programme Delivery, Advice Guidance and Befriending Service, Active Communities – our creative arts and connectivity programmes and Men’s Mental Health provision.
The Tenants’ Voice: A group of housing association residents sharing their stories to challenge and support the need for positive change. We are a charity supporting people going through tough times in Lancashire. We are part of Progress Housing Group a nationwide registered provider of social housing. We want to support residents from across Lancashire to share their stories to be able to both challenge and support the need for positive change.
The co-ordinating team
Jennie Popay is based in the Division of Health Research at Lancaster University in the UK. Her research focuses on social determinants of health equity and community empowerment.
Michelle Collins is a researcher based in the Division of Health Research at Lancaster University. She has worked on a range of research projects in areas including community empowerment, health inequalities and public involvement in research.
We would like to extend our thanks to and acknowledge the fantastic work of our colleague at Lancaster University Rosendy Galabo who designed this website and got it up and running.