LAUNCHING FILMS FOR THE LISTENING SPACE
Lucy Shiekh has been involved in Global Generation for over five years, first as a Generator (youth social activist), then as a Voices of the Earth Fellow. Her latest role as a community action researcher has been made possible thanks to a pioneering partnership with Dr Jane Myat and her colleagues involved in ‘The Listening Space’ an organic garden and associated activities, that sit in and around The Caversham Group Practice in Kentish Town. Financial support for Global Generation’s Action Research involvement with the Listening Space, came from UCL Partners. This is what Lucy has to say about her experience:
My journey through being involved with The Listening Space has been a leap of courage. For me it has been about stepping into the role of being a community action researcher, filming and editing, whilst also taking time to listen to real people without pretensions. I felt a real sense of humanity in doing this project. In this random age, we are squashed into categories where we can easily feel overwhelmed and isolated. In being involved with Caversham Patients in and around the Listening Space, slowly and carefully these layers of separation unravelled in me and between us. We helped one another to find a sense of space and hope inside ourselves.
My role was capturing these moments whilst also having to connect and empathise with the people around me, creating an environment with no barriers. I felt a sense of presence when listening to people’s stories and as I was piecing all of the content together. I tried to uncover the direction which would be most inclusive whilst capturing the uniqueness of everyone’s stories. In this way the work of making the films seemed to flow naturally.
Jane Myat described her experience of bringing action research into the Listening Space; “I have been moved by the films and pieces of writing produced by Cassie, Lucy and Maedeh; telling us what they heard, saw and sensed in the Listening Space, what they have taken in, considered, and taken with them. Through their participation, the work between us has been expansive and generative, contributing to new growth of connections, relationships and capabilities.”
The initial brief that Lucy and her two colleagues were involved with, evolved into a wider collaboration with GP’s who were organising the London Health Equity Festival, hosted by Bromley By Bow Health Centre and supported by the Royal College of GP’s. Here are some of the films Lucy produced as part of that collaboration:
We are thrilled that these films are now being hosted on The Patient Revolution website, the movement founded thanks to Professor Victor Montori of the Mayo Clinic.
Notes from the Garden
It’s a beautifully golden afternoon in late October, and I am sitting in Somers Town on a table outside the pub, admiring the seven foot sunflowers that are growing opposite the medical centre.