Voicebox @ Cheltenham Literautre Festival
HOME - What does home mean to you?
Language, identity, place, home: these are all of a piece - just different elements of belonging and not belonging
- Jhumpa Lahiri, award winning author
The Re-Balance Approach
Recognise.
Hear My Voice is the overarching purpose of VoiceBox, getting young people’s ideas and opinions out there and creating events that help achieve that ambition.
The overall objective was to balance important social issues that young people are passionate about with engaging formats that are memorable and exciting to be a part of.
Voicebox is vibrant series of free events, short talks, group artworks, workshops and live music performed by emerging talent.
Part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival
Review.
We wanted to ensure we provided a fun, inclusive session that wasn’t too formal – in our research one of the most off-putting things about cultural events for those who didn’t already get involved with them was the formality of what was on offer.
We came up with the idea to explore the idea of home and what role home plays in identity and belonging.
It was important to us that we elevated diverse voices, often that go unheard, and experiences of young people and to also involve the young people in shaping the content of the session.
Respond.
We connected with 10 young people in total and had the hard challenge of shortlisting this down to 4.
Our young experts held their panel on the prestiges World Mental Health Day at the VoiceBox set.
Compassionate thoughts around how to look after your own mental health were also shared whilst the audience was asked to jot down their own ideas of what home means to them and to summarise home in 3 words.
Meet Our Experts
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Ashley Faith Fontaine
SHE/HER
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Mimi Vergara
SHE / THEY
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Shah Alam
HE / HIM
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Yamana Jaman-Browne
SHE / HER
HOME - what does it mean to you?
Watch our enlightening discussion with our young experts including growing up as a young carer, mixed heritage households, encouraging mental health discussions in faith communities and the experiences of bereavement and loss of a parent.
More Highlights…
Project Team
Jaan Madan
Emma Gunn