“I’m glad of the creativity that you’ve inspired. I’m glad that you made me believe I could write. I’m glad that I’ve met new people that I’ve learnt from on how to cope.”

These were the words of one attendee at the inaugural TUC West Midlands Festival of Learning at the TUC and CWU offices on Summer Lane, Birmingham. So many of the other 60 colleagues – from 9 different unions – echoed this positivity, speaking about how great it is to be back in a room together again, remembering how inspiring it can be to learn in this way.

Laughter and talk were the order of the day, and not just because there was the opportunity to attend a laughter workshop. Participants dipped their toes into various activities: writing poems, drawing cartoons, writing songs. It was fun, but it also reminded them of the deep benefits of learning to personal development, people’s mental wellbeing and our sense of self.

ULRs and other activists from across the Midlands and beyond gathered for the event, opened by Regional Secretary Lee Barron. Organised on the back of the region’s successful quarterly ULR forum, the event aimed to bring people together and reignite a love of learning, after a long period of purely online, lockdown activity.

Representatives from Community, CWU, MU, NASUWT, NEU, PCS, UCU, UNISON and Unite joined with TUC staff members, and representatives from partner organisations, to celebrate learning in the Midlands. Highlights included a presentation on building a mental health network from the CWU’s Jamie McGovern, and a side-splitting speech from published author and postie, Ben Davis. There were also workshops on Laughter for Well-being from Feelgood Communities, Writing for Wellness from the Royal Literary Fund, art with Karillapig illustrator Mark Rowe and Writing your First Song from PCS’s Mark Robinson.

There were also stalls from the WEA and Birmingham City University as well as Q&A from the West Midlands Combined Authority.

With over fifty people in attendance and overwhelmingly positive feedback, the event was deemed a success and there are plans to repeat it annually and potentially replicate it in other regions.

TUC Midlands ULR Forum Chair, Steve Croke commented

It was a remarkable success, and it surpassed all my expectations. I hope it inspires members of other unions to join our ULR forum.

TUC Midlands Regional Secretary Lee Barron echoed those sentiments, saying,

I believe the Festival of Learning, the first of its kind in the country, has been a great success. Learning is important and what is also important is that we shout out our successes. Too often in the trade union movement, we stay quiet about what we do well; today has been quite the opposite.

Participants left fired up to take their learning back to their workplaces and inspire colleagues to want to be part of this too. The day’s activities will feed into the work of our ULR forum, and it’s fantastic to know that participants are hungry for more. Watch this space, it won’t be the last time we come together to be inspired in this way.