BBC Feature

Incase you missed my recent appearance on BBC Radio Leicester you can listen again here.

I was talking about my career, Doc Club (a social group for film enthusiasts) and last weekends Leicester Documentary Film Festival.

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There’s also a feature about me on the BBC website – click the image below.

An opportunity for Dads in Leicester

We’re looking for Dads with children aged 0-12 years to appear in the Dadvocacy film. We’re not asking for very much of your time and in return we will give you a unique, beautifully crafted, film of you and your child. The film has been commissioned by Family Action (a leading provider of family interventions in the UK).

Our intention is to produce a beautiful, positive film about fatherhood. There’s so much negativity spoken about dads in our culture. We constantly hear messages like; ‘A man cannot cope with children without a woman to help him’ or ‘Fathers are optional extras largely irrelevant to their children’s development’ or even that ‘most men are a risk to children’ and so on…

We want to challenge these perspectives by capturing some wonderful, father/child relationships on film. Our film will be very short, about 3 or 4 mins. It will feature three dads with their kids. We just want to capture a really positive and unique expression of your relationship. Hopefully when our audience watch this film they will be reminded of the importance of dads to children.

Filming will take about half a day, either a morning or an afternoon. We will work around your schedule. We will also need to meet with you prior to filming to prepare for the shoot.

For more information and to volunteer for this opportunity contact:
Nick Hamer or Paul Kousoulides on 0116 261 6862
or Chris Covil at Family Action on 0116 308 7980
or feel free to leave any questions below.

About Family Action
The charity has been a leading provider of services to disadvantaged and socially isolated families since its foundation in 1869. We work with over 45,000 children and families a year by providing practical, emotional and financial support through over 100 services based in communities across England. A further 150,000 people benefit from our educational grants and information service. We tackle some of the most complex and difficult issues facing families today – including domestic abuse, mental health problems, learning disabilities and severe financial hardship.

An opportunity for families in Leicester

We’re looking for families with children aged 0-5 years to appear in the Talk matters! film.
We’re not asking for very much of your time and in return we will give you a unique, beautifully crafted, film of your family.

Here’s some rough footage from our first shoot (to give you an idea of what we’re producing). We’re hoping to film 6-8 families.

About the Talk matters! film
Children who are good at communicating find it easier to make friends, learn to read and write, do well at school and have a better chance of getting a job when they grow up. The aim of the Talk matters! film is to improve the communication and language skills of children in Leicester. The film will help parents to understand how to support their children to develop their language and communication skills.

To make this film we need your help!
We are looking for families with children aged 0-5 years, who live in Leicester and would like their family to appear in the film. You don’t need any expert knowledge, just a good relationship with your child. We want to film a few parents, in their homes, interacting with their children. This will demonstrate the ways in which children develop their language and communication skills.

What do you get out of it?
If you take part, we will create wonderful, cinematic images of your family and your child. Every parent who takes part in the film will receive several DVDs of this beautiful HD footage. A timeless, priceless memory!

What we need from you?
Filming will take about half a day, either a morning or an afternoon. We will work around your schedule.
We will also need to meet with you prior to filming to prepare for the shoot.

For more information and to volunteer for this opportunity contact:
Nick Hamer on 0116 621 6862
or Julie Smith at Talk matters! on 0116 229 4356
or feel free to leave any questions below.

Talk matters! is a multi-agency partnership. The partnership involves professionals from Leicester City Council Services and NHS Leicester City.

Voice of Care Award

I’m really pleased that my recent advocacy film ‘The Vision Group’ has been awarded the 2009 Voice of Care Award. Many thanks to Warwickshire County Council for commissioning this film.

For safeguarding reasons, because ‘The Vision Group’ features the lives of vulnerable adults, I’m unable to show the film online. However, if your work is involved in improving outcomes for people with learning disabilities then feel free to get in touch to request a copy of the film on DVD.

(Below) Nick with colleagues from Warwickshire County Council, Minakshee Patel, Anne Clarke and David Alexander.