Next Steps

Our Next Steps project is well and truly under way. Just a reminder: this is our Comic Relief funded project taking place over the next two-years. It sees us working in partnership with the London Metropolitan Police Service and the POPPY Project to produce a DVD resource for women who have been trafficked into forced prostitution. The DVD will explore the issue of giving evidence in court with the aim of increasing conviction rates of traffickers whilst safeguarding the women. In the second year of the project we will work in partnership with the UK Human Trafficking Centre, Anti-Slavery International, the Crown Prosecution Service and the UK Border Agency to disseminate the DVD nationally and to train groups in its use.

So far we've met with our key partners who are all on board and ready to join us at the launch of the project which will take place at Lovells, who've kindly given us a space for free, on 11 June.

We've also set up a social media network for the project team and key partners. We hope to open it up to all stakeholders, however, this is still under debate as we are considering security and privacy issues. The purpose of the network is to open up a dialogue between members and build up a space of collective expertise. We really believe that in developing a critical mass of people in the sector who work in partnership and communicate across professional divides, we are putting the project in a far stronger position to make a real difference.

Workshops with the women, police, UKBA staff and others will begin in July these will be led by Rose and co-facilitated with Keren our facilitator whose worked on many other projects with us.

So far I've been project managing, but as some of you may know, I'm off on maternity leave at the beginning of July and so will hand over the project management to our partnership coordinator and long time co-facilitator Katherine Mann.

We'll keep you posted as the project develops.

Amy

Why Video?

Video is an amazing tool for active education.

We use video in our work because:

• It helps focus individuals and brings them together as a working team.
• It develops confidence and helps people develop their self-expression.
• Clear and open communication is key in developing a shared vision of a film, and is vital in making that vision a reality.
• Working with expensive equipment to a tight schedule, often in different locations throws up challenges that force the group to think on their feet and unites them as a group.
• Video projects allow participants to perform as a team under pressure and produce real bonds of trust, support and friendship.
• The videos produced are a valuable resource that promote discussion and generate change.
• It is an exciting time to be involved in education that embraces technological changes as they evolve.

Video and the internet are useful tools that are vital to the work we do, but it is important to remember that ultimately these projects are about individuals coming together, learning together and learning to live together.

About Us

Living Lens has been using video as a creative tool with groups in the UK and other countries for over eight years. The foundation of what we bring to every project is expressed in our values:

• Contribution: knowing everyone can contribute
• Adventure: exploring new opportunities
• Passion: igniting the creative drive
• Durability: what matters endures.

Our values are at the heart of our approach and reflect the working ethos of our team of experienced facilitators. We use video as a tool to mobilise groups and individuals to explore the issues that bring them together. The camera acts as a shared lens through which to look at the world and gives permission for the group to ask questions of each other and the wider community, that they might otherwise feel embarrassed or inhibited to ask. Our approach builds confidence and develops skills. Project participants produce a finished film of quality and experience the satisfaction of seeing a creative project through from start to finish.

Amy and Rose, founders and directors of Living Lens, have known each other for many years. It was quite by chance that we discovered we had a shared passion in participatory approaches to change. Through our work in development (Amy) and human rights (Rose) we saw how problems arose and persisted due to breakdowns in communication. Using video as a tool to build communication, we found participants were able to go beyond the ‘them’ and ‘us’ mentality that had them stuck in the problem. Living Lens started off with local projects and now run national and international projects. We have a radical approach to facilitation that allows us to love the challenge of working with people who believe change isn’t possible.