Keeping COVID Lessons Alive Through Story
Anne Holloway is an author, poet, and writing facilitator. She will be working with Host Boots UK to tackle the challenge of preserving lessons from COVID-19. While Boots remained open on the frontlines of the pandemic, the company learned a lot from this period. But as the company’s systems continue to update and evolve, the stories of this time risk being lost. Anne will ensure that this does not happen.
Anne is a poet and workshop facilitator with over a decade of experience in helping to ‘get the stories out’ in education and community settings. Founder of indie press Big White Shed, she is creative lead on Surviving by Storytelling at the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham, exploring how poetry can support positive mental health and recovery from trauma. She curates and hosts poetry-centred events and was Creative Director of Nottingham Poetry Festival 2021/22. She believes we are all poets.
The Host and Project
Working with the company archivists, ‘Collecting Covid’ is an exploration of how Boots UK responded to the outbreak of Covid-19 – focussing on the company’s role as a community pharmacy, how they supported the NHS, rolled out Covid testing and vaccination centres, the impact this had on their workforce and the changes they have subsequently made to operational practice. Through interviews with Boots colleagues, information gathered during the pandemic, and a series of informal writing and story sharing sessions, Anne will work towards producing a legacy document celebrating the work of the organisation, capturing the lessons learned and exploring how to build resilience for the future. There are plans too, for an exhibition in 2026 and a book to showcase the writing produced during the creative sessions. The challenge is to balance the requirements of the company to highlight their success in navigating a global pandemic, the expectations of the archive team who wish to capture a moment in history, and the aspirations of a poet to capture the thoughts and emotions of the individuals who worked throughout the pandemic.
The Journey So Far
As a creative practitioner who has been able to work independently in the past, and one unfamiliar with formal research practice (a practitioner with experience commensurate with a PhD, rather than having a PhD) the early months of the project have been a steep learning curve – within the university, navigating new admin systems, applying for ethics approval – at Boots UK, navigating a corporate environment, meeting with comms teams to discuss the best way to be introduced to the various team heads, then waiting for those introductions to be made formally. A plan is in place, but as yet no live interviews have taken place – however this slower pace of working has given breathing space, time to consider the best way to approach each aspect of the project and time to research alternative avenues.
Hopes and Plans for the Future
Aside from producing a document which outlines Boots UK’s covid-19 response and the curation of an exhibition to showcase the events of the Covid years, a key goal is to have contributed an abundance of new material for the archive at Boots which can be used by future historians researching the pandemic, and the story of Boots as a community pharmacy. The archive team are passionate about motivating the Boots workforce to feel part of history, to understand that their individual stories are ‘history’ – the role of the poet/storyteller in this project is key to encouraging individual staff members to become involved, and to continue gathering their histories in the future. Ideally, beyond the timeframe of this specific project, some of those who have been involved will carry on the practice of meeting and sharing stories, and writing them down, will contribute their words to the Boots archive, and will pass on the skills they learn to new staff as they join the organisation.
Story Skills In Action
Anne creates environments where people feel comfortable, to share and listen. She is a keen observer, noticing small things, making connections, finding the metaphors which help convey a message clearly. Sometimes recognising the story we need to tell is the hardest part, she helps people work that out. She is careful to choose the elements which will resonate with a particular audience, and to bring positive energy to a story. Conversations around Covid are still difficult, and she hopes to find a way for people to talk about those times, draw out the positives, and perhaps put to rest some of the more difficult memories. Telling stories is key for building resilience and she hopes that supporting a wide range of people to share their recollections and experiences within such a large organisation will build strong connections and develop the way in which people communicate in the organisation in the future.
Interested in story fellows using archive in their projects? Why not see how Story Fellow Anna Ball is using this Story Skill.
Meet another Story Fellow partnered with University of Nottingham: Panya Banjoko
Have a look at some of the our Fellows who have reached the end of their projects: _____
