Our History

Former Village premises at St James’ Church, Pollok

The Village Storytelling Centre was set up in 2000 by a highly committed group of local people from Pollok. Our organisation was created to address complex local challenges through the delivery of a range of story-led and creative services.

For 17 years we were based in the beautiful premises of St James’ Church before moving to the more central location of Langton Halls in 2017. Our work in the area of Pollok has grown over the years and we work across the wider Glasgow Wards of Greater Pollok and Newlands Auldburn to deliver our core local community programmes.

Alongside provision in our local area we have delivered a range of programmes across the city and beyond. We have developed as a leader and innovator in applied storytelling which has led us to work with some of the most marginalised and isolated communities such as people with disabilities, refugees, LGBTQ+ groups, people experiencing homelessness, people  in recovery, people with life limiting conditions, people in prison and women affected by male violence.

Over the years we have delivered a number of oral history projects and been involved in telling the stories of local and Scottish history, such as that of Crookston Castle, the history of Pollok and memories of the Glasgow Garden Festival.

Our work in schools has developed broadly over the years and we have had experience of working across the stages of education, from Nursery to Universities!

In 2016 we held our first Village Storytelling Festival, which we hoped would become a biennial event. A short pause in our plans was extended with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic but we were pleased to hold the Village Storytelling Festival 2022 just in time to celebrate Scotland’s Year of Stories.

Workshops at St James’ Church, Photo Credit: Alex Bowie

While our services and reputation now reach across Glasgow and Scotland, we remain committed to the people of Greater Pollok and neighbouring ward Newlands Auldburn and continue to be a community led organisation.

AWARDS

We have won a number of awards throughout out work including:

  • Best Children’s Event, Glasgow Doors Open Day, 2019
  • Best Scottish Short for ‘A Long Line of Glitter’, Scottish Queer International Film Festival, 2017
  • Best Acute Care Initiative for ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’, Scottish Dementia Awards, 2017