The Kingston Centre for Independent Living wanted capture the experiences of key partners in their ‘Fighting for our Rights’ project. I shaped and delivered a stakeholder evaluation, providing insights into the involvement of the six partners. The report was sent to the Heritage Lottery Fund, as part of KCIL’s final report, and to Kingston University, to shape and offer evidence for future collaborations.
Left to right – project stakeholders: Theresa Nash, Chris Hutchison, Eli Anderson, Gillian Butler and Paty Paliokosta. Photo provided by Jen Kavanagh.
For the ‘Fighting for our Rights’ project, Kingston Centre for Independent Living (KCIL) collaborated with disabled people and those working with the disability community, to collect stories about disability rights. This multilayered project involved:
- Student nurses from Kingston University and Heritage2Health being trained to collect oral histories from 23 interviewees,
- The interviews being added to Kingston Heritage Service’s permanent archive and to the Kingston Fighting For Our Rights website
- A drama performance inspired by the interviews, performed by students at St Philip’s, a community special school, in partnership with StoryAID,
- Student teachers from Kingston University creating a new school resource.
The stakeholder evaluation was commissioned by Jen Kavanagh, Oral History Project Manager at KCIL. Individual interviews were conducted with the six key stakeholders, with conversations steered by a Discussion Guide. The data was transcribed, collated and analysed, drawing out key themes and remarks to illustrate the range of responses across the partners.
The ‘Fighting for our Rights’ project was rich and complex, with multiple partners and an array of outcomes. It was evident from conversations had throughout the project that huge amounts of learning were taking place, and Catherine’s interviews with the key stakeholders were invaluable at capturing this. This report is going to prove incredibly useful for advocating for collaborative practice for everyone involved.
Jen Kavanagh, Oral History Project Manager