sounddelivery podcasts

Do It 4 Real!

This month, we've been working on a large PR campaign for the YHA's Do It 4 Real Summer Camps   programme.

As part of this, we spoke to David and his daughter Sarah. Sarah went to camp for the first time when she was 10, and enjoyed it so much that she has gone back every year since. Here you can hear how Sarah and her father both think going to camp ha given Sarah more confidence, not to mention a fantastic holiday!

David

Sarah

David Short

Sarah Short

You can read a short version of the impact report his project is based around here: Download Impact report_vslow res_June_2010. You can also see our Press Release here: Download YHA_Do_It_4_Real_Summer_Camps_The_Right_Kind_of_Adrenaline_Embargoed_June_25_Final

Why not follow Do It 4 Real on Facebook and Twitter?

Charity Effectiveness

Here at sounddelivery, we've been working on a series of podcasts for the Society Guardian in association   with KnowHow NonProfit. The first instalment was released a few weeks ago, while the second, which focuses on the general election, went live yesterday.

Production of this piece saw us travel to the House of Commons to speak with representatives from the three main parties. Before the interviews we asked those working in the charity sector to send us their questions to be put to the representatives. Nick Scott of the Scout Association also spoke to us.

Societyguardian_election-podcast

London Youth - Youth Works

What does it take to become a youth worker? 

Compassion? Being able to related to youths? What about a good sense of humour? These are just three of the traits that those taking part in London Youth's Youth Works project think you need to become a youth worker.

sounddelivery has been working with London Youth, a member organisation with more than 400 youth clubs serving 75,000 young people across the capital.

We were brought in to create an audio evaluation CD of one of their youth worker training schemes and we interviewed 8 young people who were taking part in the Youth Works programme – a project funded by the new youth volunteering charity V. It’s aim is to train a new generation of youth workers with a specialism in community activism. Young people who access the programme volunteer full time for 6 months in one of London Youth’s Quality Marked clubs. During this time they take their Level 1 Foundation in Youth Work, organise a community project and take part in a full programme of personal development.  The young people also benefitted from the advice and support of a life coach who helped them through any problems they were facing and gave them positive steps to deal with personal issues.

We produced 12 different pieces for the CD, some of which went on to be featured on the Guardian's website. Below you can hear the "Overview" piece.

Overview

 

Family Holiday Association short film

What's so special about someone's holiday movie?

Celia, two grandchildren, Angel and Ama, and their aunt Sally are a bit special. For a start, the family have never had a holiday away together.  The Family Holiday Association helps hundreds of families every year to get away and have a break where they can recharge their batteries and simply spend time together without the stresses of everyday life.  

Angel and Ama both live in busy, noisy central London.  Angel lives with her grandmother and has never been away on a family holiday before.  The short film follows them as they set out from Paddington station in London to see the sea at Butlins in Minehead. 

Download FHA_family_Butlins_ISTS_v2

This short film also features on a new website called www.isawthesea.com which is a not for profit service developed by Steve and Paul Walsh, the founders of the popular hotel booking service Laterooms.com.They aim to raise money to support people to take holidays by using the hotel booking fee you normally pay.

CharityComms Goes Live

Our latest sounddelivery podcast highlights the work we do for other organisation.  This episode shows how you can capture an event - whether conference or seminar using audio. CharityComms held their October seminar at NCVO, London.  Over 100 people attended the event which included presentations from Tom Pey, Director of External Affairs at Guide Dogs who shared his organisation's experience in establishing Guide Dogs as a leading voice for mobility and access with blind and visually impaired people.  And John Grounds, Communications Director at the NSPCC, who discussed the importance of having a communication strategy. However due to limited capacity at the event many people were unable to attend.  So sounddelivery recorded highlights of the seminar for those who missed it.  The podcast is presented by our very own Mark Ellis.

Download charity_comms_podcast_october_2008.mp3

If you want more information about the work of sounddelivery go to www.sounddelivery.org.uk

Museum of London

One of sounddelivery's most interesting recent projects has been working with the Museum of London to create a series of podcasts for visually impaired people.  Run as part of the Museum's social inclusion programme of projects, Podcasts from the Past worked one day a week for 8 weeks with a small group of adults who are currently long-term unemployed. The participants were a range of ages, with a rich variety of backgrounds and life stories, but came together to work as a team to realize their abilities and gain news skills and experience they could use in their futures. 

Download MuseumofLondon_podcast.mp3

Over the course of eight weeks the group, many of who had not set foot in the Museum before, received audio-description training and learnt more about visually impaired people through workshops with  Vocaleyes, had tours in the galleries with curators, spent time researching the objects chosen for the podcasts and then wrote and edited the scripts. The final three weeks of the project saw them bring the scripts to life by recording, producing and editing through workshops with sounddelivery.  The guys were paired up and worked as either reporter or producer to make sure they got the best quality recording.

Learning point:

These workshops created great material for the museum, but were also a fantastic way of reaching a new audience and helping inspire and motivate people.

Links:

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/Prehistoric1700/PodcastsfromPast.htm

Media Tips from Experts

In this crowded marketplace of charity communications how do you get your voice heard and your stories read, watched and listened to by your target audience?  Who better to ask than leading professionals working in the field.  At a recent Charity Communications conference a host of experts working in the media (we're talking BBC Radio 4, Sky News and The Times) were brought together to pass on their words of wisdom.  sounddelivery was there too, and managed to ask them a few pertinent questions as well as getting a flavour of the concerns and challenges facing the sector today.

Download CharityCommunications08_podcast.mp3

In this month's podcast you'll hear from Andy Smith, the editor of BBC Radio 4's You and Yours; Sara ward, the assistant editor of Take A Break magazine; Emma Tucker, the editor of Times 2: the features section of The Times newspaper; and Vicki Cook, the head of planning at Sky News.

Links:

http://www.charitycommunications.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/
http://www.takeabreak.co.uk/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
http://news.sky.com/skynews/home

Empowerment

This month's podcast comes live and direct from the Empowering Me, Empowering You conference that was held just outside Cambridge at the end of February.  The event was organised by Inspire East and was aimed at organisations in the east of England working with community groups.  Sound delivery ran 2 workshops as part of the conference, and while we were there we took the opportunity to get some interviews in the can and record our podcast!  You'll hear how delegates define Empowerment, and we've  included some of the interviews and features recorded at projects we've done in recent months that connect to the theme...

Download SD_Empowerment_podcast.mp3

Rebecca's story may be familiar to some of you, but its a great example of 'citizen journalism' or empowerment in action.   Rebecca had never used recording equipment, and never really been asked to talk about herself or where she lived.  Its a great example of being surprised and inspired by someone's voice and perspective.  And its great to hear from the pupils of Sir James Barrie school.  Listening to their definitions of community definitely makes me feel like I've become far too cynical about the world!

Learning point:

The examples we've included in this month's podcast really illustrate how effective this kind of audio work can be.  Surprising,  inspiring,  heart-warming in some areas.  These are people who you really don't hear from in the mainstream media: and they're literally doing the recording themselves in their own words, without any interference from a reporter or anyone else.

Links:

http://www.inspire-east.org.uk
http://www.wcen.org.uk

Live from CharityComms

Welcome to a new year, and a new look to the sounddelivery podcasts.  We want to share with you the work we've been doing and give you some tips and advice on how to make the most of your audio and your podcasts.  This first podcast of the year was recorded live at a Charitycomms seminar where we interviewed a host of delegates about their experiences of podcasting and how their organisations could use audio and sound to reach new audiences.

Download soundedelivery_podcast01.mp3

Norma Johnston of CharityComms and Jim Raymond of Baigent share their tips on an effective communications strategy.  We also hear an audio tribute to  Patrick Laurence, the founder of the Family Holiday Association, who sadly passed away earlier this year.

Learning Point:

What's important to remember is storing your audio, as you never know when it could be useful in the future.  An interview with a case study will often have timeless qualities that can be used many times.  You'll also find that you may collect sound effects and wildtrack from different locations that have many uses.  In the Patrick Laurence feature we used the sounds of waves to give a sense of the seaside, the waves also helped us move between speakers and tie the whole piece together.

Links:

http://www.charitycomms.org.uk/

http://www.fhaonline.org.uk/

A Taste of Africa

The material in this week's podcast is a bit of a cheat - it was collected on trip to Africa for a BBC project a couple of years ago.  What it shows though is different ways of telling stories - and using sounds from a place to transport the listener to another country.
The aim of the BBC project was to dispel some myths about Africa. So often we only get to see the lives of African people when there is natural disaster (a flood, an earthquake), or through the need for handouts and aid.  What this project was all about was focussing on the lives of ordinary people: taxi drivers, IT workers, radio presenters (if they can ever be called ordinary in any country!)
What you will hear is a number of different profiles and some of my tips for creating compelling content..

Download Africa_Podcast.mp3

Learning point: These case studies really underline the strength of using stories of 'ordinary people' to illustrate a point.  The passion and personalities really come through.  In the piece about HIV we kept the interviews as straight as possible: music and sound effects just weren't needed.  Whereas in the other pieces, using the sounds of the street and the atmosphere really brings us a flavour of life in Africa.

Links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/africabeyond/

http://www.zambia.co.zm/

If you are creating audio content from Africa we'd love to hear it. 

If you want more information about the work we do go to www.sounddelivery.org.uk