Are you involved in local, sustainable, food-related activities or activism in Sheffield? Do you work with a community-based organisation? Want to share your stories of change? Want to learn how to produce powerful digital/video stories using basic smartphone technology? Want to engage with like-minded people in the ShefFood network? ShefFood is co-hosting a series of workshops to help transform the food system of Sheffield. In collaboration with The University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food, ShefFood is offering 14 places at no cost to participants dedicated to helping change how food works in our city. Are you the right person for the job?
The Workshop Programme
This 8-session video workshop series is designed to support 14 participants in sharing stories and using audio-video more effectively as a powerful tool to communicate, learn, document and exchange around issues related to local, community-based food system change in Sheffield. The course will be practical and highly interactive, aiming to create a space for mutual support and knowledge exchange between participating individuals, communities and organisations.
The workshop programme will take place over ten weeks. It will involve two in-person meetings and six workshops on Zoom (with content also shared via email and a WhatsApp group). During these workshops, the core team and participants will be “live” together in the digital space, each lasting around 2.5 hours, including a break. Attendees will work to build up basic story-telling and video-making skills through practical activities and group learning. On the theme of transforming local food systems, the workshops will focus on the art of storytelling. In addition, each participant/organisation will be supported to create a short edited digital story (a video, audio, or a narrated slideshow).
The workshop series will be all about taking a practical learning approach, understanding story-telling and video-making by doing it and having fun along the way. Participants must spend at least 6 hours per week participating in workshops, engaging with course materials and working on short video-making tasks.
In addition to enhancing digital communication skills, this workshop process is designed to provide opportunities for people involved with food-related activism and activities in Sheffield. There will be the opportunity to exchange ideas, build relationships and share knowledge and experience that can provide a basis for collaborative action in the future. It’s grassroots action which will drive the changes we need forward.
Want to be involved?
The requirements to participate include the following:
- Active, demonstrable involvement in local, community-based work (formal or informal) to create a more sustainable/ethical food system in Sheffield.
- Must be based in Sheffield (or working closely with a Sheffield community organisation).
- Available for full participation in all sessions.
- Reliable internet access; able to use Zoom, WhatsApp and email communication
- Smartphone
- Willingness to create and share audio & video footage with the training group during the course
- Commitment to spend 6 hours per week participating in the live workshops and completing short tasks, including reviewing notes, making videos and watching videos
- Commitment to peer support and ethical conduct
- Commitment to create a video/audio story by the end of the course
Schedule and session plan
| Date | Session description & main topics | Location | Preparation activities |
| Sat 29 April. 10:30-1pm | Workshop 1: Ice-breaker and course overview Getting to know each other; intentions for the course/story-circle; basic camera handling | In-person @ Carpenter room in Sheffield central library | Bring any questions you have about the workshops/course. Bring your smartphone |
Wed 3rd May 10-12:30 | Workshop 2: basic “shooting video” tips; listening and looking; community guidelines; Ethics of video-making | Zoom | Each participant shares short video introduction and motivation clip by 8pm on 2/5/23 |
| Wed 10th May 10-12:30 | Workshop 3: Food system problems and interventions; Shot types | Zoom | Each participant shares a Show and Tell video by 8pm on 9/5/23.Video clip about a problem with the food system that they see and how they are addressing this problem through their activities |
| Wed 17th May 10-12:30 | Workshop 4: Celebrating community food activism and change; Story-telling workshop: stories of positive change | Zoom | Each participant shares a short video showing different shot types (5 Things to celebrate! or, Strengths & Potentials of your work with food) by 8pm on 16/5/23 |
| Wed 24th May 10-12:30 | Workshop 5: Group feedback and workshopping of audio stories; how to tell a story in an engaging and effective way. Video/digital story planning tools: storyboarding; Review: Top Tips on planning and shooting a video | Zoom | Each participant shares a 60-second audio recording: tell us a story about a positive change that you have witnessed/experienced/created in relation to the food system by 8pm on 23/5/23 |
| Wed 31st May10-12:30 | Workshop 6: Feedback on storyboards; Review of Planning tips; Introduction to editing | Zoom | Each participant creates and shares a storyboard for production of their own video/audio story by 8pm on 30/5/23 |
| Editing resources to be shared via email and WhatsApp | WhatsApp group interactions | ||
| Participants plan, shoot and edit a short video story (or an audio/photo story) | WhatsApp group interactions | Independent production of digital story | |
| Appointments available for one-to-one editing support | WhatsApp interactions/ Zoom | Editing support (Zoom or Whatsapp) to troubleshoot any specific challenges faced with editing | |
| Wed 21st June10-12:30 | Workshop 7: Group review of video stories and feedback | Zoom | Each participant shares a rough draft of a 1-2 minute video story by 8pm on 20/6/23 |
| Appointments available for additional editing support | WhatsApp interactions/ Zoom | Editing support (Zoom or Whatsapp) to troubleshoot any specific challenges faced with editing | |
| Sat 8th July 10:30am-2:30pm | Workshop 8: Final viewing and celebration of video stories; sharing visions for future and next steps; feedback/reflections of workshop series. | In person (Central Liibrary) | Share completed video by 6th July Reflection on experiences of the course. Next steps… |
Questions? For further information, please contact Dr. Pamela Richardson at p.ngwenya@sheffield.ac.uk. To APPLY or express interest: complete form https://forms.gle/KMrEeTod3V5CjAD5A by 07.04.2023
