Get Talking is an embedded evaluation programme to start and sustain a conversation about art, people’s art preferences and how people want to engage with art in Stoke-on-Trent. Get Talking is based on a set of principles, a clear process and creative tools for consultation.
The conversational nature of Get Talking means that it has been particularly successful with small-scale research projects, with the potential for a more personalised approach to the research.
Members of the Get Talking network are trained in Get Talking methodology and central to the delivery of Get Talking consultations:
- Involve: Involving local people to take an active role in the research process;
- Listen and Learn: Listening to and learning with people in a way that values their existing skills and knowledge
- Plan: Action planning helps to ensure that the research data collected as part of the Get Talking process is meaningful and also relevant to the communities involved.
- Cross Check: In Get Talking, cross-checking the findings collected through the consultation sessions helps to ensure that the approach is robust and the findings are reliable.
- Action: Action planning to ensure any action taken planned by the communities based on their understanding of the research which has taken place
The article Get Talking – community participation and neighbourhood learning by Staffordshire University’s Barbara Emadi-Coffin introduces the concept of Get Talking, its development and background, and the benefit to communities of using this approach of participatory evaluation.
Using Creative Tools
To help facilitate Get Talking conversations we use different creative tools, including a wish tree, balloons, poems, drawing and writing on tablecloths, paper plates and doilies, tea pots and sugar cubes, paper chains and rubber ducks.
The Get Talking team aims to make the creative tools reflective of the programme.
Our current Get Talking projects
Case Study: Quality Street 
The Quality Street project involved a small team of local people walking through their neighbourhood, taking photographs, identifying places and things they like and don’t like. They then used community research methods to encourage other people to do the same and analyse the results.
This led to the development of a toolkit for monitoring the local environment and an action plan for improvement of the area.
The team included:
- 3 students, 3 families including their children and 3 young people
- workers from the Neighbourhood team, Youth service, Police, Fire service, YMCA, Children’s Centre, Students’ Union, St Mark’s Primary School, the Community Cohesion team
- local businesses
- local Councillors
You can read the 2010 Quality Street report in our Past Work publications archive.