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Launching the Changing Places documentary
Launching the Changing Places documentary
Written by
Ruth Coustick-Deal
External Affairs Lead
Today we are launching a film about the impact social entrepreneurs are making across four areas that UnLtd has been supporting thanks to players of the People’s Postcode Lottery: North Staffordshire, the South Wales Valleys, Brighton and Dundee.
Since 2018 UnLtd and Postcode Innovation Trust have been working on the Resilient Communities programme. Together we have been enabling social entrepreneurs to develop their impact in these communities: funding social business ideas, building collaboration, and providing access to investment, and opportunities to influence externally.
We worked with a fantastic team of filmmakers to create this short documentary, ""Changing Places"", about a few of the inspiring social entrepreneurs in each place.
Whilst we use important tools like social impact measurement to convey the crucial role social entrepreneurs have in making social change, the best way to really understand it is to experience it. This is why we captured their work in action, and are sharing their words with you.
Each day this week we will be launching a new video on our YouTube channel. O****n Friday the whole 20-minute documentary will be made available.
The film series shows how each place and its unique assets lead to different ideas, formed by their environment.
In Stoke-on-Trent Jake is using the canals as way to deliver nature-based therapy. In Brighton, having transformed a gym into a popular community hub, Tanya plays a crucial role connecting and supporting others in the area, creating a hub of local entrepreneurs. In Dundee, Kirsty and Danielle are taking advantage of two buildings that were overlooked to turn them into different community resources. In South Wales Janis, from Cynon Valley Organic Ventures, is providing education and employment opportunities to local people in a community garden as they develop the land. When she watched the film, she said, “it brought tears to my eyes, you have captured our values and mission perfectly.”
These are just a few of the stories you will see. It’s also about what happens when people with great ideas find the right support. It’s about how social entrepreneurs connecting with each other build things that are truly amazing.
Although this was produced well before Covid-19, these times have only shown how community-based ventures are incredibly valuable. With the blossoming of mutual aid groups and NHS volunteering, there is a terrific energy for supporting one another in our neighbourhoods. Many social entrepreneurs are pivoting, trying new things, responding to local need.
We hope that showing their stories will also help local authorities and other decision-makers choose to support social entrepreneurs in this crucial time.
The first video visits Gemma and Janis, and their work in the South Wales Valleys
The second video meets Jake and Monica, in North Staffordshire
The third film visits Kirsty and Alison, in Dundee
The fourth part meets Ricky, Tanya, and Ketih in Brighton
To enjoy the full documentary, you can watch here.
We’d like to thank all the social entrepreneurs who worked with us on making this, all the UnLtd staff, both featured and behind the scenes, and Postcode Films, who were a delight to work with.