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...!).

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

This image was a collaborative effort between myself and Jacky Tiotto, CEO of Cafcass. 

Jacky will be giving the memorial lecture on 5th March 2024 and using the image as a mnemonic and delivery aid, a link to the lecture here:

https://www.judiciary.uk/family-justice-council-bridget-lindley-memorial-lecture-5-march-2024/

The image symbolically represents the current chaos that families and their children face when they go through the family courts in private law proceedings. This was the final image, and a couple of steps towards this are below to demonstrate the commissioning process.

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!

After the initial sketch we talked further and I then work it up into a final draft in order to then move on to the colouring stage. It's still line art at this stage with squiggled notes, but beginning to crystallise:

And here are some close-ups along with an animated GIF to emphasise the main message: keep listening to the voice of the child!

 

Children's Service in Nottingham

I was up in Nottingham yesterday, scribing for a great group of people as part of a children's services conference. I was also telling the story of one person who'd had a really difficult start in life, but had managed to turn things around. Amazing what people are capable of...

As well as enjoying the group, I really loved riding the trams in Nottingham!

 

Illustration work, amplifying the voice of the child in Merton, southwest London

Some recent local authority work, for children's services in Merton. I really like the way children's voices are being listened to more, and citizenship is being developed at an early age these days.

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

A piece of work done in collaboration with local residents to redevelop a Hackney community centre, also involving architects, co-production facilitators and town planners. To plan the image I used the building as a focal image, that I drew in advance, and used the four differently coloured themes in quadrants around it.

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!

http://www.realisegroup.com/

Community Campaign Logo

I was asked to help with a local community issue, so I came up with this logo to help with their campaign.

They had an awful lot of money to raise in order to buy the building that housed the market, so I wish them every success!

Looking After Children in Southeast London

A recent piece of work for Bexley's S.H.I.E.L.D. a multi-agency partnership safeguarding children and young people. https://bexleysafeguardingpartnership.co.uk/

The hope is to create a more joined up approach within the council, and to provide clarity for the public on what services to access when. Also reach out to people and build a communication bridge, before they're in desperate need.