The 100 Conversations are well underway, and we wanted to check in with a few of our interviewers and see how they were finding things. We asked Frances about her first two interviews, how she thought they went and how she felt afterwards.
You’ve had your first couple of conversations now, how did they go?
I have to say it was a real privilege to have the time to sit and listen to people’s lives and their experiences from the moment they get up in the morning to the moment they go to bed at night, and how that impacts on their health and wellbeing.
Having worked in public engagement for gosh, many years now, [100 Conversations] is a powerful tool to really hear things that you wouldn’t normally hear, just by listening and stepping back and not having an agenda, and by having that open script to enable people to say what’s important to them. I’ve already found it to be really powerful.
And how did you feel after you’d finished each of the conversations?
Privileged. I felt privileged, and a bit in awe actually, of the people I’ve interviewed so far. Their journeys have been quite powerful to listen to. I think what touched me most was that it’s people’s personal experiences, and to share that with us is, like I say, a privilege, but also often quite emotive, and I think that combination is quite powerful.
I think I’m grateful for them to have given their time to share bits of their lives. And these are people that wouldn’t normally be involved in groups, wouldn’t normally come and complete a survey, so people that we wouldn’t normally hear the voices of. So for them to give the time, and for us to have the skills from the training to help them with the conversation, has been a privilege.
How beneficial do you think speaking to these people – people we wouldn’t normally hear from – is going to be in the long-term?
I have great anticipation that this will enable us to understand our communities better, and I hope that we can continue to listen on an ongoing basis to as many people as want to share their experiences as possible.
And are you looking forward to doing some more, your next round of interviews?
Absolutely! Can’t wait to do my next one!
