Sheffield councillor reaches out to residents with 'TV style' live updates

Coun Ben Miskell, Sheffield Council member for Park and Arbourthorne ward, has launched a series of live videos in which he chats with members of the community about the support they are offering during the Covid-19 crisis.

He said: “I’ve been trying to experiment with it and work out different ways to reach out to people as we’re struggling a bit with having little face time with folks, so anything we can do to improve communication is positive.

“I thought what I would do is go around the different community groups and highlight what they are doing and make people more aware of them.”

StreamYard is the tool used to create these videos which links to Twitter's live video feature, so anyone can tune in and watch in real time and rewatch it after it ends.

So far he has highlighted the work of Spires Foodbank in Arbourthorne and Norfolk Park Mutal Aid and has plans to chat to Even Better Arbourthorne and others as a regular feature.

In his live streams, he is also highlighting Sheffield Council's helpline on 0114 273 4567, which people can call for support with things like food deliveries, medicine or mental and emotional wellbeing.

Coun Miskell said he had seen a bit of an increase in casework since lockdown began and was holding virtual surgeries over video conferencing site Zoom, so people could continue to talk to him about issues directly too.

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