Talking Deck

Project Information

The Talking Deck is a selection of cards – including symbols, words and place-based images – carefully chosen to help people speak about the issues that are important to them. It has been co-designed by researchers from the University of Exeter, staff and volunteers at CoLab, people with experience of homelessness, and artist Hugh McCann.

The project was a partnership between researchers from the University of Exeter (Catherine Leyshon and Shukru Esmene from the Social Innovation Group, and Lorraine Hansford from the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health), CoLab and Devon Mind, funded through an ESRC Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) award. The IAA helped to translate the main principle of HAIRE’s Guided Conversation tool  (using meaningfully co-designed visuals to facilitate wellbeing-related conversations) into a resource that suited CoLab Exeter’s working culture and the individuals who use their wellbeing hub.

So far, feedback from users of the Talking Deck has focussed on how the cards help facilitate conversations that are led by the individual, rather than the staff member. Workers commented that using the cards had given them more insight into people’s interests and concerns, and "opened different doors" for people to talk about what is important to them, with issues sometimes emerging that would not necessarily come up in standard assessments used by the organisations.

A support worker at Julian House said: "I was sceptical at first... I was quite surprised at how it was more powerful than I thought."

If you are interested in using the Talking Deck in your organisation then please contact Fiona Carden (fiona.carden@colabexeter.org.uk).