Healthy Child and Teen Relationships

I was asked by the charity Let Me Know https://lmkletmeknow.org to draw several healthy and unhealthy relationship scenarios that would be used by their practitioners to help inform discussions about healthy relationships for children young people, mainly peer to peer. The wish is to empower the children and young people to feel confident in their choices and to make the decisions that are right for them.

This project involved being briefed carefully on the wording of the situations, then working together to define what situation to apply them to, plus being mindful of inclusive representation.

I've mixed them up a bit, can you spot the difference between the healthy and unhealthy ones? Hope so!

 

Public Health in Nottingham City

 

I was up in Nottingham yesterday working for the Public Health department. Inspiring afternoon, with lots of committed and passionate health professionals sharing their good practice. 

Thanks to their teams for the work in progress/action shot!

Allied Health Professionals Educator Career Framework - Appreciative Inquiry

This was for a university (Winchester, Canterbury and Southampton) and NHS collaboration, it was an online stakeholder consultation helping to create a formal framework within health education. 

The thing that gave it a real lift was by using the Appreciative Inquiry process, led by Andy Smith https://coachingleaders.co.uk He really created a space for people to explore new ideas and feel supported, and people seemed genuinely inspired and energised by the day, plus the event commissioners have a huge amount of ideas to take forward. 

The first image below refers to the process, and then some of the images from the 4 steps, and more info here if you're interested in learning more: https://kss.hee.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/08/Start-with-whats-working-Appreciative-Inquiry.pdf

The aim is to focus on what went right and to amplify and build on that. This positive approach is very infectious and uplifting!

 

This all might sound slightly 'niche', but all these trainee health professionals will be helped to learn better in order to do better jobs when they're released into the NHS, so it's important!

Capturing the Process of Co-Production for a Town Planning Project

I was commissioned by the Co-Production Collective https://www.coproductioncollective.co.uk based at UCL (University College London) to help gather views and discussion as part of a regeneration project in Croydon. This was over 4 separate meetings, the last one was held at their newly opened 'Urban Room' in the Whitgift Centre. 

The project will continue over the next few weeks https://www.croydonurbanroom.com so please drop in if you're a Croydon resident and want your views heard!

Health Equity for all in London

A live piece of work commissioned by the GLA (Greater London Authority), bringing together multiple voluntary organisations to help plan for their future involvement. Lots of heated debate and discussion, and a lot more power needs to be shared for this dream to become a reality.

Co-Production Collaboration: National Voices and Roche

I was asked to capture the final meeting of a whole series of co-production events that the charity National Voices did with pharmaceutical company Roche. The aim was both educational and a form of research for Roche, and both groups benefited from the experience. 

It was a bit of a wake up call for many in the Roche team, mainly about the lack of trust in 'big pharma', and the understandable reasons for this. But also it helped build understanding on both sides, and build bridges.

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 I know this is a bit silly, but I loved the graphic representation of their angular building on the doormat!

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...!).