Tuesday 5 March 2024
Co-Production Collaboration: National Voices and Roche
Violence Reduction Unit - Greater London Authority
When you hear the words 'Violence Reduction Unit' you don't necessarily think of primary schools, but this project 'Talk Matters' set up by the GLA (Greater London Authority) is all about making education and learning as accessible as possible to help young children's literacy and articulation so that they get the most out of their education.
Helping them to speak.
I learnt a new word: Dialogic teaching is the process of using conversation or shared dialogue to explore the meaning of something. A powerful talk by Dr Kulvarn Atwal Executive Headteacher at Uphill Primary School.
This was a preparatory sketch I'd done to get into the zone and focus, as this was a relatively short job of a couple of hours:
And the child bird sculpture facing the building seemed relevant to the emerging themes of isolation and alienation that some children feel when they don't get the support they need at school in the early years (and beyond...!).
Thursday 29 February 2024
Drawing for Change - Addressing Adultification of Children
This is best explained by reading the poster! Please click on the image to enlarge it.
A recent commission for a London Local Authority. Good to hear this is being focussed on and addressed, hoping this has a ripple effect.
Drawing for Change - Bridget Lindley Memorial Lecture
Step one below was a sketch from Jacky, so I could 'see' what was going on in her mind. I often ask for this before getting started if a client has a strong idea of something they want to communicate. I always say: even if it's a stick man on the page it helps me understand what you have in mind!
Thursday 8 February 2024
Children's Service in Nottingham
As well as enjoying the group, I really loved riding the trams in Nottingham!
Tuesday 6 February 2024
Illustration work, amplifying the voice of the child in Merton, southwest London
Children's parliaments, young people doing peer to peer surveys for the council, children's mental health ambassadors in schools. I'm hoping all this involvement can help build a more engaged and better educated, and hopefully kinder generation of young people.
I also want to bang my drum for using illustration in this way. To invest in the communication of messages is a way of honouring testimony and amplifying people's voices. It's especially impactful when expressing the voices of those who have previously been sidelined and overlooked.
Illustration may often look 'pretty' or may be considered a 'nice to have', but it's worth investing in the people who surround you, be that a child, your staff, or someone you're trying to reach at a conference.
Ok, time to get off my illustration soapbox :)
Co-Production in East London
This job needed help from the facilitators to make it work, so I had note takers from the 4 groups who helped harvest information and feed it to me, so that I could stay by the paper and keep drawing, because people were scattered around the building.
I'd recommend this way of working if you have lots of breakout groups but still want an overall sense of the feedback in the room. Or alternatively you could have a more sophisticated setup that the folks at a company called 'Realise' have, involving software similar to Mentimetre, but with a lot more questions lined up. I was working with them last week and that worked really well!