The People First Podcast

Today on the People First Podcast we are covering a brand-new local music festival coming to North Yorkshire later this year... it's Skipton LIVE! This event will showcase a lot of local talent in Skipton, so we are very excited to talk to organiser Mike to learn more about what the event will hold, how accessible it will be and what they hope the impact will be. We hope you enjoy the show! P...

We are so exited today to be interviewing an inspiring and celebrated advocate and fundraiser for people with disabilities: it's Jack Marshall! As well as being a hard-working campaigner and fundraiser for both his rare condition of Moebius syndrome and for issues faced by people with disabilities at large (receiving the British Empire Medal for this work!) he has just become a first-time aut...

Our guest this week is an a celebrated actress with disabilities on British Soap Operas ( Coronation Street , Emmerdale ) and comedy TV and radio ( Tinsel Girl , I‘m with Stupid ) here to share her inspirational story and her love of advocacy: it's Cherylee Houston MBE! We were super excited to chat with her about her incredible career and how she helped to campaign against the government wit...

This week's episode of the People First Podcast is a Learning Disability Awareness Week special!  Fitting with this year's theme of "Do You See Me", we got the absolute privilege to spend an afternoon with someone who has seen us all from outer space: Hayley Arceneaux!  Hayley, a physician at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and went on the Inspiration4 in 2021, makin...

Today we have a super-special episode of the People First Podcast, as we celebrate the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026! All of the PFKC Office team have been working hard to collect some fun footie facts about all 48 of the amazing teams taking part in the World Cup that we want to share with you. We hope you enjoy the show! Please rate our podcast and leave a review! It really helps tell our mem...

We are showing our passion for fashion today on the People First Podcast! Our guest today is social enterprise leader and accessible fashion designer, May Marigold, who does fantastic work with models with various disabilities to make colourful, accessible clothing for different conditions and needs. It was really interesting to get to speak to May and learn more about her work. We hope you enjoy...

Joining us today on the People First Podcast are some members from the group voted "Advocacy Organisation of the Year" at the Inclusion North Awards: People Focused Group! Based in Doncaster, this group helps to provide Peer Support to adults with learning disabilities on lots of different issues. Our team got chatting with them about what the Inclusion North Awards were like, learning m...

This week we have an exciting interview to get our teeth into, with the disability social and meal group the Buzz Club! They are one part of the local charity CTI 2000, supporting adults with learning disabilities to have a developed social life through group activities and creativity! To tell us more is Marcella, one of the group's support staff, and our member Stephen to talk about their ex...

We are getting our groove on this week on the People First Podcast, as our guest is the Artistic Director of the charity Dance United Yorkshire, Helen Linsell! Dance United helps to provide opportunities in dance to people in marginalised communities, supporting lots of local people in and around Bradford. Thank you Helen for joining us! We hope you all enjoy the show.     Please rate our podcast...

Today on the People First Podcast we are talking to two guests from local disability service Exclusively Inclusive, Katie Peacock and Christopher, all about the accessible sport Kin-Ball! Last year we ran a sports session with them and enjoyed it a lot, so our team member Nathan wanted to have them back in to learn more about the sport and the work they do with it. We hope you enjoy the show! Plea...

We have a very exciting extra long episode of the People First Podcast for you today, featuring members and support staff that visited us earlier this year from York People First! This is another People First service that works to advocate and support adults with learning disabilities in a few different ways, so it was really interesting to have them in our office to work together and learn more a...

This week on the People First Podcast, we are talking to the head of one of the largest organisations in Yorkshire - Purple Patch Arts! CEO Jessica Aldred is joining us in the studio alongside Teghan and Amy, two members of PFKC, to talk to us about what makes Purple Patch so great to be at and about how they use their Purple Match Method and creative work to empower adults with learning disabilit...

We have a very exciting episode of the People First Podcast for you all today! Because in the studio with us is Paul Wilshaw, the Engagement Officer and a fellow podcaster from Mind The Gap! They're a fantastic local theatre group run by and for adults with learning disabilities... but what makes them unique is their original plays about issues relating to people with disabilities! Their orga...

This week on the People First Podcast, we are talking to another one of the winners from the 2025 Inclusion North Awards! Our guests today are Tony, Jayne and Sam, learning disability Self-Advocates based in Selby who at the awards last year were given the Gary Stark Citizenship Award. Joining them today is Maria, a staff member from Inclusion North, to tell us more about the work they did to win...

We have an exciting and theatrical episode of the People First Podcast for you all today, as we are talking  to one of the oldest theatre groups ran by people with learning disabilities — Firebird Theatre, which is based in the Old Vic in Bristol! Joining us to talk about members Chris, Tina and Dan to tell us more about their time at Firebird, how theatre skills help them to be advocates, and wha...

We've got another episode of the People First Podcast for the football fans in the audience! Because we are talking all about Bradford Disability Football Club, a local partner of Bradford AFC that supports adults with learning disabilities with a range of needs to play football! Our member Oliver organised this interview as he plays for the football club, and wanted to talk more about the gr...

On today's episode of the People First Podcast we're talking about our trips to Cartwright Hall in Bradford to see the 2025 Turner Prize! Four rooms filled with a diverse and colourful set of artworks by four fantastic artists, including this year's winner Nnena Kalu! To hear more about it, we welcomed Ami from Bradford Care Association into the studio, who supported our visits arou...

This week on the People First Podcast we are having a more serious discussion about death, dying and grief. This is a very important topic for us to talk about, so although it can be difficult we do not want to shy away from covering it on our show. Our guest is Karen from Tending 3 Magpies, who offers person-centred care and support for people at the end of their lives, to tell us more about this...

This week's episode of the People First Podcast focuses on a fantastic project that some of our members took part in called "Portraits of our Time"! This was a project supported by Bradford 2025 where people were photographed holding something important to them, like an object or a photograph. They then spoke about the object and why it is something that means so much to them. To ta...

Today's episode of the People First Podcast features another one of the winners from last year's Inclusion North Charity Awards, the "Charity of the Year" Little SENDsations! We got the chance to speak to their Founders Hayley and Sam to learn more about the work they do to support children and young people and their families with learning disabilities and SEND needs. We hope y...

This week's episode of the People First Podcast is all about one of the fantastic winners of last year's Inclusion North Awards, celebrating services and organisation that work in different ways to support people with learning disabilities. We are speaking to Paul and Sian from Durham County Council, who work to run Bluebell Apartments that won Provider of the Year! We hope you enjoy the...

On this new episode of the People First Podcast, we are talking to our Co-Production friend Wil Quick about his recent work with Bradford Council on the building accessibility project! This is Wil's third time on the show and we are very happy to have him back to chat about working alongside him and Equality Together, as well as get more information about th project! We hope you enjoy the sho...

Welcome back to the People First Keighley and Craven Podcast! For the first episode of Season Five, we have a show we recorded last year with the members of Hope Productions, part of the charity TAPE Community Music and Film! We got the chance to speak to the team all about their work, how it empowers their members with learning disabilities, and learning more about the work we did with them at Le...

For our final episode of 2025, we have our yearly Christmas special! This year, all of our members answered a couple of questions about Christmas, including what presents they were hoping to get, and their very favourite part about the Christmas holidays.  We hope that everyone has a great festive season, and a happy New Year. A big thank you for all of your support over the last 12 months.  Pleas...

We have a very special episode for you today, because it's the penultimate show of the People First Podcast in 2025! We are talking about a very special topic, Road Safety, with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority's Vision Zero team! It's a very interesting project and we're really excited to learn more about it, and how road safety measures can impact our local communities....