Case studies

In this collaborative project with Grassmarket Community Project, we used storytelling as a means to co-design a transition pathway to volunteering. We used the CAKE framework to design a series of workshops that enabled members to share their stories of becoming member-volunteers. We used the issues, enablers and barriers, along with members’ vision of a supportive member to co-design the transition pathway. An additional outcome was a shared story, ‘We are Family’ that members’ presented within their community. The shared story can be found here.

Quote: Made me feel happy telling you about our experience. It was good working altogether. I was happy to be able to present our work. (Member-volunteer)

We attended a Digital Storytelling course run by the amazing Chris Leslie at the Scottish Book Trust. During a year-long programme we learned how to create digital stories and we are now able to help others turn their story into a format that can be communicated widely. As part of the course we created our own digital stories. Kath’s is about the vision behind ListenUpStorytelling and its evolution. Caroline’s is about developing expertise as a person-centred facilitator. You can view Caroline’s story on the right, and Kath’s story here.

In this QNIS grant funded project, working in collaboration with Queen Margaret University, we helped community nurses to explore their experiences of work-related stress, promote well-being and resilience and co-create a tool kit that could support well-being in the workplace.

During a series of 5 facilitated workshops we used creative and participatory methods, including storytelling, lego serious play, poetry. We have created a resource, CAKE: a recipe for self-care, well-being and team resilience-building. CAKE was tested in 17 sites across the UK and is now available as a digital resource.

Read more about the Catalysts for Change: SEEDs Project at The Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland website >>

“At first felt really daunted by storytelling, but I could see the worth as the session went on and we elaborated on the stories, thank you”

We collected stories from students, staff and the local community from a nearby university. These stories recollected their experiences of lockdown during the Covid 19 pandemic. We then facilitated online workshops with a small group of the story contributors to analyse these stories and create a collective story in the form of a virtual art exhibition, to archive for the future.

Kath worked alongside a group of Learning Disability Specialist Queens Nurses to evaluate their learning journey on a one-year leadership programme. This was funded by Burdett Trust. This mixed methods evaluation used a range of approaches: Questionnaires, a focus group, and creative methods: Lego, painting, drawing, body mapping and stretch statements. The full report can be read here.