We are developing a collection of stories from people working across the climate and migration sectors in the UK who have also been personally impacted by climate and migration injustice. This collection – a more accessible counterpoint to an often overly technical array of reports and policy recommendations - will offer more human insights into the realities of climate and migration injustice, and the ways it has impacted the way individuals approach their work and driven them to action. In doing this, we hope to show how the impacts of climate breakdown and displacement reach across so many aspects of our lives, and illustrate how we all have our part to play in moving towards a justice-centred approach to climate-linked migration.

If you are interested in participating in this project, please fill out our brief Expression of Interest Form.

The Call to Action

Our goal in sharing this collection of stories is for people to gain insight not only into what it means to navigate a journey of climate-related migration, but also how those journeys inform organisational strategy and programme design, and otherwise shape the perspectives of the individuals who make collaborative and creative programming and service delivery possible. These stories are from our colleagues, programme participants, community leaders, and members of our working groups; they are the people who design, build, implement, and make creative, impactful cross-sectoral work a reality.

How we hope to do this work

We are inviting people working in the climate and migration sectors who would like to share their story to co-design this project with us. There are myriad ways to tell stories, and we want to co-develop the approach, the priority outcomes, as well as what the final collection can look like. We will facilitate an initial open listening space to those who are interested in the co-design process to establish a shared approach to story collection/creation and distribution.

We are open to written submissions from writers who already know what they want to say and how, but we are also open to creative formats including art, poetry and music. For those newer to storytelling, we will offer a more facilitated, interview space to support the storytelling process. What’s most important to us is that storytellers feel a strong sense of their own agency to shape their story with authenticity and humanity, centering justice, joy and community where we find it. The stories will always belong to the storytellers, but we ask their permission to share these on Climate Migration Collaborative platforms (website, socials, Substack). They will never be reproduced elsewhere without storytellers’ permission.

What do we hope to achieve by sharing these stories?

Our primary audience is individuals and organisations working across key domains that intersect with climate justice, migrant justice and racial justice. These include health, housing, civic infrastructure, education, democracy and narrative building.

Through these stories we hope to connect the personal realities of climate and migration injustice to the creative, collaborative work that is being done on the ground. These stories are meant to elucidate the realities of climate-linked migration, and inspire the development of more collaborative work across the climate and migration sectors from our colleagues and partners who understand it through their personal and professional experiences.

Time Commitment

The time taken to be a part of this process will vary but should not be more than 6 hours, unless you choose to stay involved in other parts of our work, of course!

Payment

We know that significant emotional labour goes into telling a personal story, as well as the actual time taken to build a relationship with us, help us co-design the work, share your story, and provide editorial input into the final version (review, comment, approve). We are working with a modest overall budget, but can offer £300-450 to each storyteller (depending on whether you’re employed/freelance). If you would prefer non-financial compensation, talk to us about alternative options e.g. a professional headshot, coaching session or something else that we haven’t thought of. For anyone who is sharing their story for the first time, we can also offer guidance on how to prepare and decide what you would like to share/not share.