Getting your story told
LGIU wants to work with you to tell your stories about your area’s unique experiences of developing and delivering policy solutions across a range of different communities and services.
We know it can seem daunting at first, but LGIU can work with you to get your story told. We’re always looking for ways to share case studies of emerging practice and policy development.
- We can edit what you write up or help you re-use something you may have shared internally or with residents.
- We can provide you with a topic guide or key questions that you can answer in your own time and we can write up into a blog post for your approval.
- We can interview you or a colleague for a Q&A or a feature piece.\
- We can interview you for our podcast.
We’re always looking for stories of change and improvement, new ideas and innovation. These stories don’t always have to be about ‘glowing success’. Most of our readers ask us for stories of ‘hard lessons’, explaining where things didn’t always go right or how you might have had to change direction in a policy. We understand that story can be hard to tell, particularly in a political environment.
Get in touch with us directly at freya.millard@lgiu.org or submit your story here.
What kind of stories are we looking for?
We are open to stories about just about anything that you think your colleagues in local government might be interested in, after all, we do touch on everything local government does. However, as we move to a thematic approach through our Global Local bulletin we have a particular editorial need for these topics:
Cost of living crisis
How is your council or voluntary sector organisation supporting families as they face rising prices of commodities and fuel? How are you supporting your own staff? We want to highlight the work of councils supporting their communities.
- Are you developing warm banks? Using community assets to help people stay warm like Aberdeen and Birmingham?
- Are you strengthening and supporting your community and voluntary sector to continue their work?
Mining communities
The impact of mining and other extraction industries (forestry, fishing, oil, etc) on local communities. How has your local authority dealt with waxing and waning populations and needs as prices rise and fall? How have communities dealt with resources playing out and the need to re-skill? What about the environmental impacts of extractive industries on local communities and eco-systems? We are planning a Global Local bulletin early in 2023 looking at how communities are reinventing themselves ‘at the coalface’.
Convening community action
How can councils convene community action? What are the actions that are supportive of community groups building on their strengths to support each other and make neighbourhoods better places to live? And how can councils make sure that this support doesn’t just mean benefits flowing to the already blessed? Our earlier bulletins on community engagement focused on citizens’ assemblies and the use of technology to support better engagement.
Emergency management
We’ve had a series of unfortunate and largely unpredicted, unprecedented events over the past few years. Are our emergency management services up to scratch? How are councils preparing for the worst any better?
Local museums and history
Local museums can be custodians of past and place while also preparing communities to face the future and make a honest reckoning with history and culture. Do you have a great local museum? How are you working with them, supporting them and shaping our current views of where we live? Are you from a local museum that’s been working with local government? How is that partnership going? How could it be improved?
Abandoned housing
Many cities are facing a house crisis and sometimes the same places have housing that’s not in use or underused? How can we match need with supply?
Support for veterans
How is your council supporting veterans with employment, social and health support? How are you working with partners?
Loneliness
Loneliness has always been a problem, one with severe emotional and health impacts. As we continue to feel the impact of the height of the pandemic and self-imposed isolation during fresh waves of Covid, how are councils and communities building on the lessons of lockdowns?
Rural broadband
Are you in a rural area that’s trying to support economic development through the rollout of high speed broadband? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Or maybe your local authority is in a city and you’re dealing with urban not-spots in underserved communities.
