Our Teams
Hear Our Voice Project
Hear Our Voice is a National Lottery Funded project that works with people with learning disabilities, people with mental ill health and people who are deaf, to develop their skills and learn new ones. The main skills that the groups work on range from basic computer skills, through to more advance digital editing software. Our volunteers learn how to work in a studio based environment for photography and video projects. They are responsible for their own projects from the initial planning phase all the way through to the final showcasing. Gaining these skills will build confidence and increase the possibility of paid work in the future. Hear Our Voice encourages members to be creative and try new things; this has led to some excellent work.
An example of a project that a member is working on is developing a portfolio for a dress making business using digital software. Originally all of their designs had been drawn out by hand for each new client, which was time consuming. They are now learning to use Adobe Illustrator to create high quality digital images that can be used to showcase their designs for publicity purposes.
Many members of our workgroups are keen to tell their stories to show how sometimes communication needs to be improved so services can be accessed more easily. This can make people feel better connected with the community around them.
One of our members, who finds being in a loud busy environment difficult, is working on a short film to inform people about what sensory overload is and how it often affects people with autism. They have filmed, acted in and edited this video with support from the rest of the group. The aim of this film is to explain to people about the difficulties that many people experience in a noisy environment and they hope that it will be used for training purposes.
The work that BTM produces follows the Accessible Information Standard. Working with the groups gives us an understanding of how we can better the accessible information that we create and what is important to those that need it. With the members leading on the direction of the work, we are able to experiment with them and see what works best through this project.
To see what the groups have been doing so far, visit our volunteers blog www.btmprojects.com
If you are interested in joining a group, please get in touch with BTM and we will let you know if there is a place available.
