Heart-to-Heartv4.compressed

THE CENTRE FOR THEOLOGY & COMMUNITYHEART TO HEARTEXAMPLE OF A STORY USED IN A PUBLIC CAMPAIGNJust Money? Storytelling in a public campaignWHAT THEY SAID TO THE MAYOR OFHACKNEY (IN A PUBLIC ASSEMBLYOF 300 PEOPLE)COMMENTSON THE STORYSTRUCTUREPUBLIC ACTIONS(TELLING STORIES IN PUBLIC)Stories are often used in public campaign actions in order to clarify thereason why we, as citizens, are taking action and to provide a focus forthose in power to respond to. The stories used at these moments arealways sharply focused on the identified issue that is being addressed, aswell as chosen to emphasise the emotive essence of why this issue has hada significant impact upon the life of the individual. It is also extremelyimportant to demonstrate that this story is the experience of many otherstoo, not just one person.COLLEEN:My name is Colleen, I’m from St John’s Churchin Hoxton, and this is Violet from St Michaeland All Angels Church in Stoke Newington, andwe’ve been part of the leadership team on theJust Money campaign.It’s clear that money is a problem for manypeople in our borough, but it’s not always aneasy issue to talk about so last year we startedhaving ‘Money Talk’ events in our institutions.What we learned was that many people havebeen getting ripped off by payday lenders andother companies who prey on people in difficultcircumstances.So we came together across our differentinstitutions and decided we needed to dosomething about this. We started a petitionasking Hackney Council to ban payday loanadverts from as many places as possible –public computers, Council-owned properties,local newspapers and billboards. We knew thatif we got more than 750 signatures then ourproposal would be considered at a full councilmeeting, so we set ourselves the ambitioustarget of reaching that number in just a fewweeks before Christmas. The question was,“could a small and ordinary group of citizens16 17WHO WE ARESet the tone byintroducing ourselveswell. We look powerful byidentifying the institutionswe represent.WE DID SOMELISTENING ANDFOUND THIS OUTThis is not just whatwe think, but reflectswhat lots of differentpeople have actuallyexperiencedWE RESPONDEDWITH ACTION