We managed the media for Grenfell Testimony Week, helping to share the powerful stories of those affected by the tragic Grenfell Tower fire and giving voice to people who had previously felt unheard, ignored or misrepresented.
Grenfell Testimony Week
Amplifying the voices of survivors of the Grenfell fire
challenge
Grenfell Testimony Week provided a platform for the bereaved, survivors and residents to speak directly to representatives of organisations that many of them hold responsible for the fire in 2017.
We managed all media around the high-profile event, working directly with individuals who had experienced enormous trauma, in a media landscape that had at times been exploitative of their community. Helping to uplift their stories sensitively and authentically, ensuring they were heard unfiltered, was a huge responsibility.
Unlike a traditional campaign, where the goal might be to drive as much coverage as possible, our role was to ensure participants had the opportunity to tell their story beyond the room at Testimony Week, and a positive experience of media engagement if they chose to do so.
solution
Our process was guided entirely by the wishes, needs and wellbeing of the community. We spent time really getting to know the individuals taking part, assessing how comfortable and confident they were to speak to media and creating the flexibility and space to engage in ways that felt right for them.
From there, we had to create the right conditions for responsible media coverage. We prioritised journalists with a track record of thoughtful and sensitive reporting around Grenfell, and provided managed access to the participants and their stories.
We ensured that everyone involved had the freedom to tell their very real, personal and heartbreaking accounts. The power of these testimonies spoke for themselves.
>100
pieces of sensitively reported media coverage including BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme, The Guardian, Channel 4 News and ITV
21
media attendees at the event
11
in-person broadcast interviews in the lead up to and during the event
4
consecutive days the story was led by ITV and BBC London News
10
meetings with Claimants to assess their wishes, needs and appetite for media
While the media attention was important, the only success metric that really mattered was how the participants felt about the experience with media. Coverage was overwhelmingly positive, sensitive and put individuals’ experiences at its heart. One survivor’s family said afterwards he finally felt he’d started to set the record straight after his story had been misreported previously.
“Thank you so much for being the most reassuring, calm and safe pair of hands we could have hoped for on as sensitive an assignment as Testimony Week. You did tremendous work to steward people’s voices to the wider public with diligence and care, in the way that they deserved to be heard. We learned a lot from working with you.”
Gracie Bradley and Minnie Rahman,
Coordinators of Grenfell Testimony Week
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