Keith came along to a few of the Social Media Surgery sessions at Blakenhall Healthy Living Centre in Wolverhampton to receive some help with communications for 2 charities he supports. After receiving help from our surgeons he returned a 3rd time to offer support himself.
Here he tells us why:
I first met Lorna Wills at the Low Hill Social Media Surgery in January. Recently I caught up with her again to see what had prompted her to come to a surgery in the first place and what she’s done with her new skills since then.
Lorna moved into the area 2 years ago and didn’t know that many people near where she lived, so she came along to the surgery wanting to learn how to use the internet to find out what things were going in her area. Things that she could get involved with. She had been attending her local neighbourhood watch meetings, but when the group tailed off she realised she wasn’t sure what she could get involved with next.
” I first found out about the surgeries only just in time to attend the last session in Low Hill but the people there were lovely and welcoming. I sat with someone and they showed me how to use twitter. They knew there were lots of people and groups using it locally and that I could use it to find out what was on going on in my area ….
…I’ve since joined the local Crimestoppers group as a voluntary member. I talked to Mac the organiser on twitter and went along to a meeting to find out more.
I’ve since traveled to Rugby for my induction and to the Crimestoppers conference in Warwickshire, which is where I met Chief Constable Andy Parker. Talking to Andy we discovered we had a mutual acquaintance, we got back in touch I’m now arranging to meet him too!
Those conversations on twitter have been a catalyst for all this. I have met some lovely people and improved my social life.
I was feeling dissatisfied in the area, it didn’t seem that friendly, I found it was hard to make new friends in a new place. I think I’d come to realise you have to stay somewhere couple of years to find your community but I just couldn’t meet people I could relate to before but now I have both at the surgery and people I’ve met by going online.
I used Twitter to find out about events locally, which I’ve attended and now I’m even helping to arrange our own event on Low Hill for local groups to a showcase their organisations. The surgeries played a big part in my taking part in all this, it has boasted my confidence, I’ve always been active but in my own and now I’ve met some lovely people to be active with.”
This morning we were at Blakenhall Community and Haelthy Living Centre in Wolverhampton hosting another social media surgery. Attending were volunteers from Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council, workers from the cities Citizens Advice Bureau and Wolverhampton’s Local Involvement Network (LINk).
After the session we spoke to Pav from the LINk to ask her why she’d come along – She said she’d attended to find out more about Social Media, how to use facebook and twitter and connect it to their website.
She left having set up her own twitter account and as you can see in the video she is REALLY excited to get back to work and tell her colleagues about it!
Yesterdays Social media Surgery in Low Hill, Wolverhampton was attended by Jerome Turner, research fellow on the Creative Citizens research team at Birmingham City University. It was Jez’s first time at a surgery and he’d come with lots of questions for his research about why people chose to come along to either give or receive help.
Jez recorded some of the answers and shared them with us via audioboo and you can listen to these below .
Patient Pat Fullwood came along for assistance setting up a Facebook page for her Neighbourhood Watch group and for support on a page she’d previously set up for the Long Knowle Community Association.
Jaswinder Singh Chagger (aka Handsome) came to look at how he could use Facebook and Twitter to connect with organisations across the city of Wolverhampton.
James Clarke from WV11.co.uk came along as a surgeon again and he said the thing that makes him keep coming back is being able to share his knowledge with others “opening their eyes to a whole new world”