Treorchy and Scarborough are Talk of the Town

by Hannah Ormston, Policy and Development Officer, Carnegie UK Trust

People embody the local story of the place they live. They help to form an ongoing narrative of the future and are pivotal in shaping external perspectives of a place. These stories have the capacity to inspire and lead change.

Today, we announced the successful participants of Talk of the Town, a new pilot project that supports two towns — one in Wales and one in England — build on and develop these narratives to tell their story, in their own words.

The two successful towns are:

• Scarborough, England; and
• Treorchy, Wales.

Over the coming months, Scarborough and Treorchy will receive practical one-to-one support from SoundDelivery, an organisation that champions stories that need to be told. The training will look at different techniques of storytelling, from audio and video, to blogging and vlogging, and will equip participants from the two towns with the skills they need to communicate their narrative to policymakers.

So far, this project has confirmed what we know — towns are diverse places: each have differing people, communities, histories, stories, demographics and geographies. Throughout the application review process, we were struck by the collective ambition and commitment of the people who live and work in the 29 towns that applied for this support. Each demonstrated and reaffirmed our perspective that towns and communities are special: they continue to strive for change within their local communities and offer a safe space for personal stories to be articulated and shared, and collective concerns to be voiced and heard.

We are excited to learn more about Treorchy and Scarborough in the coming months and can’t wait for them to share their stories, so that towns across the UK and Ireland, beyond the shores of Scarborough and the valleys of Treorchy, can explore the power of storytelling for developing flourishing towns.

Follow @CarnegieUKTrust and hashtag #TalkOfTheTown on Twitter for project updates.

Originally published at https://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk on October 28, 2019.