Silver Linings of a pandemic - community collections captured in new book

A collection of beautiful stories written by and about the people of Greater Pollok to celebrate the community spirit, endeavours and positives that have arisen during the pandemic, have been published in a unique book called 'Silver Linings' and is being unveiled at a special launch hosted by The Village Storytelling Centre on Thursday 30 September.

The book launch will take place with some of the local community who contributed with their recollections and stories to the publication and will be the first chance for the local community to see the book in all its glory.

Over the past 18 months the country has been bombarded with negative stories as we continue to be affected by COVID-19, however the Village Storytelling Centre had other ideas. The team has spent the pandemic gathering stories of happiness, hope, friendship and a sense of community in Greater Pollok to help counter balance the bad news and to bring the community together as they navigate the road to recovery.

In collaboration with the Centre for Civic Innovation at Glasgow City Council and with support from SWAMP community development trust and Sanctuary Housing, Village Storytellers spoke to people from all walks of life across the G53 area, from families who expressed how grateful they were to spend time with each other, to nursery children who were happy to tell the team how they passed lockdowns at home.

The team also reached out to local organisations who braved the streets during such traumatic times to aid a neighbour and help those most vulnerable to the virus.

The result is a heart-warming book containing over sixty stories of resilience in the face of adversity and a positive legacy of the pandemic!

With the strain of the pandemic slowly starting to ease, the teams have arranged a launch event to celebrate the resilience of the local community.

As well as hearing some of the stories at the event, citizens who feature in the collection of stories will be able to collect their own book.

The venue has limited capacity and those featured in the book are being prioritised for the occasion.

Helen Mill, Executive Director of the Village Storytelling team is delighted to see the culmination of this wonderful project and said: 'It has been wonderful to work on 'Silver Linings', to hear from so many people across the Greater Pollok Community and to shine a spotlight on their amazing ability to find joy in the darkest of times.

'This community has a plethora of people who care about others and that has really come to the fore during the pandemic.

'We are very proud to have had the honour to be part of this initiative and for the community to trust us to listen, gather and to help tell their stories and which has resulted in this gorgeous book that's a legacy to a point in history that will be talked about for many, many years.

'Thank you to everyone who took part, shared their stories or supported the making of the book.'

Find out more about the Village Storytelling Centre at https://www.villagestorytelling.org.uk/

You can read about the good work of the Centre for Civic Innovation on their website at https://cciglasgow.org/