DATE: 10 August 2020

Good Organisation Twitter Takeover  

 

Good Organisation will be taking over our social media feeds on Thursday 13th August to highlight how they use history and heritage to engage with socially disadvantaged people across York. Under normal circumstances, the city attracts over 7.3 million visitors each year, contributing in excess of £600 million to the local economy, and their work aims is to leverage the potential of that growing sector for social good.  

  

York Museums Trust are very supportive of the Good Organisation; their mission and approach reflect our own values of ensuring our shared heritage is accessible to, and of benefit to all.     

  

The Good Organisation raise some very interesting questions through their work by exploring what it is to call this city our home. What is it that makes us feel welcome, or not here? How do we build a secure home? These questions are what we, at the Castle Museum, are researching in how we interpret our collection of everyday life to show what we value and covert to make a house a home. We are keen to work with the Good Organisation to help us answer these questions and this Takeover is our first step on our relationship.   

 

The Good Organisation supports some of the city’s most marginalised individuals, including those affected by homelessness, drug or alcohol addiction, ex-offenders and those experiencing mental ill-health, and operate a number of projects, including ‘Invisible York’ which provides intensive training and support to enable local homeless people to act as walking tour guides. These tours will be highlighted in our Takeover on Thursday.  

 

Unfortunately, because of the stigma still surrounding homelessness, not all their participants have felt able to serve in such a high-profile role where their situation is publicly known, and with this in mind, the organisation also runs a number of other initiatives. 

 

Those include, “Postcards from the Edge’, which provides cameras to rough sleepers, enabling them to capture images of architectural and heritage attractions outside of the city centre that tourists rarely get to see, which are then distributed and sold as postcards.  

 

During the recent lockdown, Good Organisation also worked to reduce social isolation by developing a digital app, which members of the public will soon be able to download to experience audio tours narrated by local homeless people, and navigated by the GPS location capabilities of mobile technology.  

 

As well as building confidence, those involved in the various projects acquire research skills, develop effective communication techniques through story-telling, and obtain knowledge of digital systems that move beyond basic foundation level computer literacy by utilising geo-mapping and audio transcript or image editing software.  

 

A large proportion of the earned income provides practical support that is specific to the individual needs and personal circumstances of those engaged by the projects, enabling those individuals to secure affordable accommodation, manage outstanding debts or to enhance their employment or educational prospects on a continual basis.  

 

You can find out more about Good Organisation via www.goodorganisation.co.uk 

 

York Museums Trust is excited to work with Good Organisation on our social media Takeover and look forward to having further projects that help us explore our collection of everyday life.