I’m currently working as a Scheduling Planner for the BBC Academy based at MediaCityUK in Salford.
My job is to organise journalism training for BBC staff members. I’m part of a superb team and work with some fantastic people on a daily basis but my role doesn’t require interaction with the public.
Previously I worked as a Tour Guide where I got to interact with all kinds of people in the community; it was one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had. This is part of the reason I volunteered for an Outreach project, to connect with the community again and share my knowledge.
The purpose of this project is to make a short film to raise awareness of LGBT Youth North West which is a regional organisation that seeks to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people in the North West of England.
They run a variety of weekly youth work sessions for young people in Manchester and offer a wide range of LGBT Awareness training opportunities. As a gay man I feel extremely passionate about this organisation and admire the work they do.
As one of a number of volunteers working on this project my priority was to meet the young people at the Joyce Leyland LGBT Centre and discuss what they wanted to achieve with this film.
I worked closely with Marvin McKenzie from BBC Outreach to devise a story-telling workshop. I met some wonderful individuals with very interesting things to say. They shared personal experiences during the session which allowed us to see the invaluable support that LGBT Youth North West provides.
The group decided the film should have a ‘funky’ tone with minimum talking heads. Preferred methods of storytelling included music through online formats such as YouTube, Vine and Instagram. It was agreed to keep the film short and sweet with the intention to share the video or ‘go viral’.
I thoroughly enjoyed the evening I spent with LGBT Youth North West. I connected with a community that’s dear to me and improved my facilitation skills at the same time. The experience of leading this workshop will prove beneficial in my current role.
My next step is to work with the volunteer film makers who will provided a treatment and script, arrange a date to shoot and produce a film that LGBT Youth North West can proudly distribute to raise awareness of their wonderful organisation.
*BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community support and staff volunteering.