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In episode 2, Lorna Collins speaks to Michael Chandler, CEO of the Union Chapel Project.
Transcript
Lorna Collins 0:02
Welcome to Creative Lives, the podcast. My name is Lorna Collins. Our topic today is community, communication and engagement. And my guest is CEO of the Union Chapel project, Michael Chandler. The Union Chapel project is a charity that oversees both the union chapel venue, the Margins homeless project, and a growing and increasingly ambitious creative community programme. Michael is also founder and chair of the Sierra Leone-based charity Way Out Art, which empowers street youth through music, film and media, and, previously, Michael ran the country-wide national residency programme at homeless Forum Theatre Company, Cardboard Citizens. I'm going to have a conversation with Michael, about community, communication and engagement. We'll be thinking collaboratively about these ideas, starting as always with creativity. So I'm going to ask you, Michael, what does creativity mean to you, your community and your work? Tell me how you express yourself creatively in your own life.
Michael Chandler 1:12
So creativity is a number of things, really. I think a lot of people are associated primarily with arts and culture and music. But I think it's much broader than that. It's about fun, it's about the chance and the opportunity to do something different, whatever that might be, and is also really importantly to me, and to a lot of the communities that I work with, an opportunity to express oneself, to understand oneself in a way that you might not have the opportunity to do in other elements of everyday life. And expressing one's, obviously how one's feeling, but also one's previous experiences, or current experiences in a way that feels right and feels true to you as an individual. And as I say, it can range from arts and music and culture. But I also think it includes things more broadly, things like cooking, things like gardening, things like even getting involved in building projects, and architecture. These are all creative outlets, really, to my community and the communities that I work with. The expression of oneself and one's experience is often front and formost of the work that I do, and we do with our communities. It's an opportunity to connect with other people, whether in your group or as a wider audience, perhaps in a way that you wouldn't have the opportunity to do in other everyday circumstances. And it can be very empowering in the opportunity to be inspired and to inspire others for personal change, but also social change.
Lorna Collins 2:54
Can you give us an example, Michael, someone in your community Union Chapel, or in Margins, give us an example about how a participant can use creativity and enhance their lives.
Michael Chandler 3:06
So during the last year, and during the pandemic, our services and our organization pivoted away from being a venue, and obviously, a lot of people know Union Chapel as a whole, as a worldwide and well loved music venue. We quickly had to obviously shut our doors back in March 2020. But we pivoted one of our spaces to become a food bank, and a community emergency response hub, and that served to address the urgent issues that a lot of the people in our communities were facing, such as access to food, access to support, but also advice, guidance befriending as well. Following that, because we are obviously an arts organisation, and we recognise and have seen the importance of art and creativity, we then began to develop a series of programmes and resources that focused on providing that opportunity to be creative.
I think one of the best examples is one of the current or recent projects that we've been working on, which is a community creative leader programme, where we've been working with a number of people with lived experience of different kinds. And that does include homelessness, and risk of homelessness includes mental health issues and a range of other things. And that group has come together and through a creative process began to share their personal experiences with each other in a safe space and in confidence. Through that process, the group the individuals have, obviously connected with each other and they've formed really strong bonds with each other and I'd say friendships, that they then had the opportunity to share their experiences as a performance, in a creative outlet to a wider audience. And that wider audience include policymakers, people of influence that were then very deeply affected by the stories, and the issues that this group have been sharing with them in a creative manner that in this case, has actually led to real systemic change. We had Islington counsel present with us, and they have committed in essence to some next steps following and inspired by this group of individuals who have, you know, being very honest and truthful about their experiences.
Lorna Collins 5:27
It's very interesting because you there bring together community and communication and engagement in that single example. Why don't we contextualise these ideas and issues about community and communication in the current moment? So what is the situation? What are the issues that you are tackling right now?
Michael Chandler 5:48
So for everyone, right now is an incredibly difficult time. But for the communities that we're working with the increase in mental health issues, the impact of the last year in terms of traumatic experiences is substantial. We've worked with over 1000 people in the last year, who have been either at risk of homelessness, isolation, loneliness, and the importance of the services that we've been offering, in terms of the very front line services, if you like: crisis support, food provision, showers to people who haven't had access, as well as that sense of community as being vital. What we're seeing now, as we're hopefully starting to come out of the pandemic, is an increase in mental health issues. It is an increase around the issues of trauma affected by the pandemic, but also a lot of anxiety about the current circumstances, but the future issues and concerns around unemployment, housing issues. So, you might or might not be aware, but at the moment, we have this "Everyone In" policy, whereby the majority of people who were rough sleeping, have been supported to come off the streets, they've gone into hotels, and subsequently gone into temporary accommodation that I hope in many cases go into permanent accommodation. But that won't last. And things like the benefits increase for Universal Credit, the eviction ban, these are all measures that have been put in place by the government, which have helped people to a degree throughout the last year. But we'll come to an end soon. We're expecting unfortunately, a real increase in people in need in crisis. And obviously, that's a grave concern for us and our organisation and the partners that we work with. But it's obviously a real anxiety for the people that are facing,
Lorna Collins 7:42
How can we address or improve this situation creatively? What can be done?
Michael Chandler 7:49
Well, I think the impact and the importance of opportunities to be creative and to share experiences and to do things you enjoy is incredibly important for mental health. That in itself is why the arts culture, creativity in other ways is vital right now. But in addition to that, so through my various experiences with Way Out, the organisation that was set up in Sierra Leone, which uses music, arts and culture, to support people off the streets, and to share their experiences, through the work of corporate citizens, which again, inspires and supports people to share their stories and issues. And now Union Chapel with the community leaders programme, this enables and empowers people to share their experiences that they're having now, and say: This is the impact on us. And this is what it's going to do to us. And this is why something needs to change. And this is why our local council, or local partners, organisations or even national organisations need to act. This is how you can help me.
These are conversations that are very difficult to have for some people. Under normal circumstances, if you ask someone, what's wrong, depending who's asking the question and how they're asking it, I think that you will be you will receive sometimes a very guarded answer. And a lot of organisations will be much more deficit focused. And to just to explain that a little bit, they will focus on the problem rather than the solution for the individual or what the individual wants to be the solution. Through a creative process. you're providing an outlet and an opportunity to say this is what the solution for this particular issue is or could be. And this is how you as in the organisation, or your local community, or just other people can help me and that's really important right now.
Lorna Collins 9:46
Very interesting. How does creativity help us tackle life's inequalities? And I asked you this because I think what you're saying makes a big impact on these ideas about inequalities, the Union Chapel project, the project with Cardboard Citizens and Way Out art, is all relevant to the idea of inequalities.
Michael Chandler 10:07
So I think just building on the previous examples, the opportunity to have one's voice heard, particularly when one is experiencing certain inequalities or a lot of inequalities is quite rare. And the opportunity to have a platform or an avenue for one's experiences, and to champion the issues around inequalities can then become quite limited. So we've been doing a lot of work around supporting people, freedom of speech, and the history of union chapel is a fascinating one in that respect, because it started 200 years ago with a group of nonconformists, who were at the time seen as radical activists and for some time, even illegal. So the history of the organisation is very much about freedom of speech, and providing the opportunity for people who might not otherwise have a voice, to be heard and to inform policies. And you know, the future of the country, really, the avenue and the use of creativity is such an example of how to do so. So you might have protests, you might have civil disobedience, you might have more traditional methods or avenues of democracy, which may or may not alienate a lot of people who don't understand or don't, you know, the bureaucracy of democracy is too complicated. However, using a creative avenue to share one stories, shares your experiences, then using that and putting that on a platform and sharing it with the right people, then provides the opportunity to speak truth to power creatively, and in a way that you might not otherwise.
Lorna Collins 11:48
Thank you. I'm interested in you as a person, not just your job, Michael. Clearly some really powerful, impressive work in the community; is there something -- an object or a practice, that reflects your own creative self?
Michael Chandler 12:06
An object or a practice? Culture, creativity has been a huge part of my life. So since I was a very young child, I loved drawing arts, got into cartoons for quite a while. And then for about 15 years, I was very heavily involved in music, that included music production, DJing, and radios and clubs, and subsequently, then filmmaking. So I've kind of been through a multiple stages of creativity, in that respect. And I think there's a few films that I've made that I'm particularly proud of, and also speak to these issues as well. I think one of the interesting things right now, if I'm thinking about an object or a practice, right now, the last year, I think there was a period, and I don't know if you found this as well, but at the beginning of lockdown, where I felt that actually I've got loads of time, all of a sudden, I can be more creative, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I was actually hoping to do more music. That didn't last very long, because I then had to focus on, actually, my priority has to be saving the Union Chapel. And that in in turn, required a lot of fundraising. I think in that there's probably a degree of creativity, you could argue, so I've written a lot of fundraising applications for different purposes. And the writing process and thinking how we frame these things, is probably the closest I've come to creativity in the last year. And I've really missed that opportunity to be creative in other ways. But I have two young children as well, and through homeschooling, and other things, the opportunity to be creative with them has also been, I think, in the absence of my own creativity, has been vital. So if there's an object, there's probably a piece of art that my son has made that I've helped him on.
Lorna Collins 13:54
Thank you, Michael. I'm going to present one last idea, which is the life course, because he's spoken a lot about creativity, communication, and engagement. But what about the life course and about age? How does creativity express or affect the life course, in your experience, and in your work?
Michael Chandler 14:13
I think the opportunity to be creative, as early in life as possible and and being encouraged to be creative as early in life as possible, is vital for a lot of creative thought. And that then impacts on your wider education, I would say, again, taking my son's education as an example.
Lorna Collins 14:35
How old is he?
Michael Chandler 14:37
He's six, so quite young. But I've noticed in the joy of homeschooling, you get to see what exactly they're learning and how they're learning it. But I think things like reading and writing, there's something that's very structured and formulaic about it, that I think quite a few people that have been homeschooling this time round have realised actually where's the fun where's the creativity in this process? I think it's vital from a young age to have the opportunity to be creative in whatever form that might be. Because that will then impact. And I don't know the science behind this, but I believe that it impacts the way your brain and your thinking develops, and years to come. And then through life, the opportunity to just as I say, have that outlet of some form, whether it is arts and culture, whether it is cooking, whether it is just the opportunity to be yourself and express yourself is vital.
Lorna Collins 15:30
Do you work with older people in your homeless projects?
Michael Chandler 15:34
Yes, so with Margins, in terms of people that are experiencing homelessness, or rough sleeping specifically, if you look at the demographic, we're probably about 50% of them are over 40, and properly about 25 to 30%, over 50, over 60. In addition, we have another project at Union Chapel, which is called 'Culture Cafe', which is a weekly drop in and that is increasingly or largely people who are of a certain age, shall we say, and the benefit and the impact of that opportunity. And again, it's the opportunity to come together as much as to be creative as the opportunity to come together and do something fun in those instances, which is which is also vital.
Lorna Collins 16:20
Thank you to Michael for what you've shared and for our collaborative thinking. I really look forward to hearing more about your projects and applying these ideas in our creative lives. Thank you to grand challenges for producing the podcast UCL mines for publishing and the input of our numerous collaborators behind the scenes. The editing is by Nina Quach music by Tim Moore. We will be back with another podcast in two weeks time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai