Asylum seekers UK: a field trip to Belle Isle | Amplify Leeds

Several participants of this film are asylum seekers in the UK. Together, they decided to take us in a field trip to interview Belle Isle’s residents and ask them what they think makes Belle Isle a great place to live.

In May 2015 a group of people from Leeds came together in Belle Isle to attend a participatory video training hosted by The Young Foundation. They designed this film named “Finding your Feet”, which, drawing on their strengths as a group, sheds a new light on the process of finding your feet in a new environment and presents Belle Isle with a fresh perspective.

The kind residents of Belle Isle shared their views on topics such as housing, the neighbourhood’s facilities and the challenges of being unemployed in the UK. Others even shared secrets and stories that take us back to Belle Isle in the 1600s!

This video is part of the "Amplify Leeds: Asylum, Homelessness and Unemployment" playlist. This playlist features the participatory videos produced in a joint project between The Young Foundation, InsightShare, Leeds City Council and The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, aimed at identifying the new ideas, networks and partnerships transforming the city.

From April to June 2015, InsightShare led three participatory video trainings in Leeds with the Young Foundation as part of their ongoing action research programme to "Amplify Leeds". In total, 35 people attended the trainings, producing 11 films.

Each film represents a reflection of their interests, celebrating their local heroes and communities and highlight the individuals and organisations that have helped them. The participants chose to tackle issues which reflect their own personal experiences, including seeking asylum, homelessness and unemployment.

These participatory videos were screened to councillors and other stakeholders, as well as at numerous community screenings around the city including at a community showcase event on 22nd March 2015. A bicycle-powered cinema got everyone involved in this fantastic screening event, attended by people from across communities in Leeds, social innovators, funders, and leaders in the city.

This project was facilitated by InsightShare in partnership with The Young Foundation. InsightShare is a community development organisation committed to improving and shaping the use of Participatory Video in all its forms. As leading practitioners in the field of Participatory Video, we have dedicated ourselves to delivering transformational projects with some of the world’s most marginalised communities and Indigenous Peoples. We have directly facilitated hundreds of projects in over sixty countries, working with diverse peoples to address a wide variety of issues.

We support people to use video for: advocacy, research, programme design, innovation, monitoring and evaluation and community engagement.

InsightShare uses videos to empower citizens, enhance research and drive innovation. So can you.

https://insightshare.org

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