Picking up the bits

This blog and the media team have been put on hold for a couple of months because I have been laid up with a broken foot. Zoe, Lynne & Rob have done a fantastic job in keeping the media team training going but now we are ready to get down to some serious campaigning with the team.
We have decided that Heavy Load's Stay Up Late campaign is really important and so we are going to see what we can do at a local level to help. Tomorrow the team are going to watch the Heavy Load film and start to think about what is going on in Coventry and Warwickshire. I'm sure most of the team will have a story or 2 about their own experiences on not being able to stay up late. We are also interested in the new campaign by Leonard Cheshire called social care matters and will think about how we can help support this. Both campaigns fit together because the reason people can't stay up late is because they don't have access to good/flexible social care.
If you don't know about either of these national campaigns take a look at these 2 websites and watch the Heavy Load film on BBC IPlayer (it was originally shown on BBC3 Storyville 9th Feb.)
http://www.lcdisability.org/?lid=9069
http://www.mencap.org.uk/case.asp?id=8599
Our other big challenge is getting people to read and comment on our 2 blogsites so if you can help with promoting this please do.
www.chattervine.blogspot.com
Denise

Quick catch up

It has been very busy in the media office recently, we are getting ready for our first big PR campaign and have lots of things planned for the next few weeks. The team have also had a training day at BBC Coventry and Warwickshire and they are going to talk about that on their chattervine.blogspot.com site. I thought the BBC training day was very good we were given chance to look at using the internet, learnt about how to catch the attention of editors with our press releases- who would have thought it is common for an editor to get 500 emails a day! We also had a go in the radio studio doing interviews with each other- great practice for the ones we have planned for the next few weeks.

We have just held a photography competition for people with learning disabilities living in Coventry or Warwickshire and had over 90 entries, with many very good photographs sent to us- there is lots of talent out there. I'm just glad that I was only organising the competition not doing the judging! Still after a couple of hours on Monday our 4 judges finally chose the winners and we have launched a website with all the entries on it: www.flickr.com/photos/grapevinecomp2008

All the photos are going on public display from 16th-30th June in Coventry Council House and the Lord Mayor is presenting the trophies on Tuesday 17th, hopefully with our local press in force. The competition is just a small part of the things we have planned for Learning Disability week starting 15th June.

The team have designed some hanging expression walls which are going in public spaces in Coventry & Nuneaton. The idea is for people to come along and write comments about what learning disability means to them. The biggest wall is going in the BBC open centre in Coventry and we are hoping that as well as it being featured on the morning show of 16th June that the TV cameras might be around.

The BBC have really championed our cause and are giving us live interviews during the week covering a wide variety of stories. We also have a live interview on Hillz FM radio, a Coventry based community radio who are celebrating their live FM licence at the same time. They have offered Paul his own show during the 1st week of their FM month and perhaps he might get to do shows for the other 3 weeks.
As things happen we will keep this blog updated so please do visit often, and tell us what you think. Denise

Coventry Team's photography session

We were lucky to have a photographer come and work with the team, to help us understand what makes a good image and how to take a decent picture. After we had learnt about how a camera works and some of the technical stuff. We looked at a variety of pictures and then went out in between the April showers to take photographs of Coventry. We only had time to walk around Spon End and medieval Spon Street but the team managed to get some great images. We have opened a flickr.com website called grapevinemedia67 and have also posted lots of pictures to the BBC's record breaking attempt project called the Big Picture 2008.
Why not visit our flickr website and have a look. Peter has also opened his own flickr website and will be adding some of his pictures next week.

Visit to the BBC Mailbox, Birmingham

Recently the team visited the BBC at the home in the Mailbox. We had a chance to do a weather forecast and a news reading. There were exhibitions about the history of the BBC and a chance to see into the production office. Unfortunately we didn't get to see anyone famous.
After we had done all this we took a long walk around Gas Street Canal Basin to Centenary Square. Everyone had a good time but there were lots of aching feet.

press attention- just like busses

Isn't it funny how you try to get some attention from someone and just when you think no one is listening you find out that they are. Last week we managed to get 2 stories in the media. The first was an article about this very blogging project and appears in Learnign Disability Practice. the second was a story about our photography competition and appeared in our local paper the Coventry Telegraph.
We also had some more good news today, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire are willing to give us some live interview slots during learning disability week June 15th-22nd; which is great for our planned positive image campaign running from now until learning disability week.
Now how do we get to appear on TV? we had a practice run last week when the team visited BBC Birmingham at the MAilbox, where we got the chance to do weather forecasts and read the news. But it would be great for the team to do it for real- any ideas?

Uncover's 1st Birthday

It's really hard to believe that yesterday was our 1st anniversary, and what a difference a year makes. This time last year the project had recruited 2 staff (myself & Zoe) and were looking for a 3rd person to join the team. We didn't know much about the media and had very few local contacts. We were also faced with trying to find people who wanted to be on the media team, our target by the end of the project is to have worked with 35 people.

One year on we have 2 media teams, one based in Coventry and one in Nuneaton and we found a 3rd person to work with us in the office. We have also worked with some students based at Henley College, who are now our media minding group. They watch TV and tell us what they think of it. We will be looking to set up another team in Coventry during the summer and we have a big PR campaign running during June to cover Downs Syndrome Week and learning Disability Week.

So what have we done in the year?

2 of the team have been on the radio. Zoe has worked in the communications department of the city council and helped edit their bi-monthly magazine. The Coventry team have finished their training and are helping run the press office. We have starred in a video for the Big Lottery Fund website. Lynne has just done a placement with the BBC and Peter is doing a photography placement with Coventry University. We have set up 2 blog sites. The Nuneaton team have been asked to be in a feature for the Nuneaton Tribune. We have designed our own postcards and spoken at a number of events.

Not bad for our first year so HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY UNCOVER MEDIA TEAM.

Denise

Media Placements

As part of the Uncover Media Project we aim to put all the people involved on to a placement with something that is media based. We don't try to find placements that result in jobs, the idea is to give the team a chance to experience some aspect of the media that we can't offer.
Zoe had a 6 day placement with the communication team working for Coventry City Council. She learnt how they manage press cuttings, which has helped our team manage our cuttings. She also got involved in editing the Citivision newsletter, which goes out to all households in the city. Zoe was also featured in the issue she helped edit.
Peter is currently doing a placement with the photographer at Coventry University. He shadows the photography picking up tips to help improve his skills. He has taken photographs of the flight simulator and been involved in recapturing images that were taken of Coventry 40 years ago. Hopefully he will be doing some studio portraits so that he can then update the Grapevine staff photographs.
Lynne is looking forward to a 2 week placement with BBC Coventry and Warwickshire starting early in March. Rosie is hoping to repeat the placement that Zoe had.
For later this year some of the team will spend some time at the National Press Office for the charity Mencap and Suryabala would like to spend time with the Asian Network, so we have to talk to the BBC.
One final bit of good news is that Dee-anne is starting work next week, sadly though this means she is leaving the team.