Those of you who attended the Carers Festival in June will have come across the Manifesto Exhibition, which consisted of original artwork that focused on the idea of Carers having their own personal Bill of Rights - or Manifesto. The images - which were produced as large format prints, some measuring up to a metre square - combined a range of portraits with text directly sourced from Carers, setting out a series of statements relating to rights and expectations Carers should have for themselves and their lives. (See artwork examples)

Now we want to get Carers more involved in developing a Universal Manifesto that all Carers could subscribe to, to be launched on Carers' Rights Day this year.

So what do we need to do? Get more Carers involved. The Manifesto Exhibition was designed with quite a degree of interactivity, as those visiting the exhibition could add to the list of Carer rights from their own perspective and had the opportunity as exhibition goers to have their own image and words produced as artwork and added into the exhibition on the day. So we're now looking to tour the exhibition, canvas the views of as many Carers as possible about the contents of the Carers Manifesto, run workshops on creative approaches to raising awareness of Carers' issues and more.

Over the coming months we will also visit as many of our carers groups as possible to get maximum Carer input and there will also be the opportunity to contribute at the Carers Forum in October.

Once we have developed the Carers Manifesto, we will be presenting it to those people who have an influence on policy making and service planning to look for ways in which they can take the messages on board and better develop the delivery of services to Carers.

We really do need your involvement. We will promote the exhibition tour as and when dates and venues are arranged but in the meantime you can submit ideas for the Manifesto (write to our Messenger House address or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with suggestions). If you want to discuss the Manifesto Exhibition or ideas behind the initiative, then please call Nick Baker at Carers Gloucestershire.

We really do have an exciting opportunity to make a creative, effective and powerful statement for and by Carers, so please get behind Manifesto Campaign