Human Resources: The Home Office

The Home Office is trying to recruit more people from all backgrounds to reflect the society we live in. Encouraging diversity and inclusion all the way up through the grades, to senior civil servant level (or SCS in Home Office parlance).

I really liked this quote, to show true inclusion: "not just being asked to the party, but also being asked to dance at the party".

There were some really encouraging stories, especially in the case of school outreach programmes in order to change perceptions early on.

Thanks to Sarah Boulton from Realise for asking me to scribe this event:
http://www.realisegroup.com/new-page/

Visual minutes: Young People's Mental Health - Bexley, London

Quite simply: a wonderful day. 

Earlier in the year I was asked to scribe at a young people's conference on mental health. This was a day of sharing methodology and stories to end stigma regarding mental ill-health. 

Lots of great work happening, and the teenagers who are mental health champions within their schools were truly inspiring.

I was commissioned through Scribing Magic Ltd.

Sketch notes for Microsoft

For this event I was using sketch-notes to tell the story of new developments in Microsoft's 'Bot' architecture and how their technology can partner with various businesses. 

I interviewed the people involved and then captured their journey after I'd digested the information and had a chance to think it through. A slightly more measured approach to graphic recording.

The technical side was beyond me, but the outcomes for companies and their customers were far more understandable - the technology is developing so fast but it has to have a human-centric interface.

Thanks to Lloyd Pestell at Courage Media for getting me involved in this project.

St Mungo's Graphic Recording turned into Illustration

Earlier in the year I spent a day with a group of researchers at St Mungo's. This was a peer-led research group, looking into the 'push' and 'pull' factors of why people return to rough sleeping.

So why do people return? A lot of the time it's because there isn't the support network around them to make it work, whereas on the streets you're part of a community.

The day I spent with them listening and drawing 'live' was used to illustrate their findings in a report and smaller brochure, and this has just been published:

Thanks to Lucy Holmes from St Mungo's for asking me to get involved.

10 year Anniversary: Merton Centre for Independent Living

I've been working with Merton C.I.L. for 5 years now. The centre for independent living is a peer-led centre for disable people, and is a much valued resource for local disabled residents.

This year was a celebration of how far they've come since they started - they had printed one of my drawings on a cake. This was a first for me, I've never eaten one of my drawings :)

I was there to capture the celebrations and inspiring words (and songs!). A very inspiring and moving day.

Graphic Recording at the Olympic Park, London

This was on behalf of Ludic, for WorldSkills UK.

This was a youth summit focussing on addressing what to do to get young people interested in a career in the construction industry.

We were right next door to Anish Kapoor's sculpture and and all around there was building work going on - so it was an inspiring backdrop for the event!

Live graphic recording, London

Some recent scribing activity - as I've not blogged for a while!

These were for a community foundation and for a patient consultation on sharing health data.