Building Diversity in East Midlands Children's Services Staff

I was asked to scribe at this day of celebration and learning. The East Midlands is a very diverse area and it's important that children's services staff reflect that, also at senior levels. This was an event to keep moving forward with this aim. 

Place Based Giving - Explaining what it is!

I was asked to create a representation of the Place Based Giving project that London Funders https://londonfunders.org.uk/ fund. 

This is a wonderful initiative, giving local communities the ability to steer projects and fund projects that make the most impact, from business mentoring to supporting local food banks. 

The poster will be used to create more ripples around the work they do, and hopefully get more funders on board! Here's hoping!

Thanks to Louise Kavanagh for asking me to get involved: https://purposefulmarketing.co.uk/

UKRI Community Forum

This was a really great day, sponsored by Ofgem with the aim of bringing together energy innovators and the general public to discuss improving the ways they share information about their services. 

I often ask clients what sort of image they prefer from a selection of examples I pre-share - and this circle with a swoosh seems to be very popular this year! I think it's because it allows the eyes to travel and has a feeling of onward movement/change. 

We're definitely in a period of massive change since the war started in the Middle East a month ago, who knows where we'll all be in another year...

National Police Conference - Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)

This was quite a challenging couple of days, live scribing probably the worst kinds of things happening in our current society/world, against women and girls, but with a hope that collectively the police can be aware and taken action to make a difference. 

This is a picture of me at the end of it all - tired and slightly relieved I can go home, and read/watch/listen to something more wholesome!

Live Scribing in Nottingham

Last week I was scribing for a cohort of children's services social workers. This was to promote a more diverse workforce in the East Midlands region. The wish is that senior management teams reflect the audience that they serve. It was a really inspiring day of talks and workshops, and even some forum theatre courtesy of Narrative Alchemy theatre company.

This image will be displayed and shared to keep their work going, it's important that the spirit and energy of that special day continues throughout the working year.

Logo design, helping to spread good practice

After many iterations, ta-daaahhh, it's the new logo for a 'Together Champion' an internal staff member who promotes a way of working and set of values within the organisation called Cafcass. 

It's usually a Family Court Advisor (FCA) who is attached to Cafcass, who liaises between the family and the family courts during court proceedings.

A few of the iterations here:

Amplifying reseach findings, University College London

It was great to see how one of the UCL mental health peer researchers, Charlotte Crowl, had used the images I produced earlier this year and created a brochure to amplify the research findings.

More about Charlotte's work here: https://www.charlottecrowl.com/

Proud parent of some of my drawings being used:

The Big Conversation in the London Borough of Bromley

I was asked by Community Catalysts to drawn up some images for a short film about ageing well in Bromley. I live in the borough, so it was nice to feature a few places I know really well - including, my own street, the local library, and places I go to for walks nearby. 

Have a look and see whether you'd like to move or retire here :) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAUJOj11mOc&feature=youtu.be

Some stills from the video:

Substance Use Conference 2026, Surrey County Council

This was a large 2.5 metre banner drawn at the day-long conference.

I learnt a lot at this conference. Not least, that a large percentage of the prison population are neuro-diverse and have either ADHD or some form of autism. As a result they've struggled at school and often been excluded from mainstream education. 

Hopefully the less judgemental we become as a society, the more able people will be able to access the help they need and no longer feel stigmatised and excluded. 

Tackling Knife Crime in southeast London

2026 kicked off with scribing some quite hard-hitting issues, and this was one of them. 

Unfortunately schoolchildren these days need this sort of education, on top of all the other things they're having to deal with (and I'm including social media!)

My favourite workshop was this one, as it was essentially using comic book stories as an educational vehicle, and they've done it really well! More on Penificent here: https://penificent.com/

Street doctors are doing such amazing work to educate young people as well: https://streetdoctors.org/

 

Crown Prosecution Service, London, Honour Based Abuse (HBA)

A very moving day of testimony and sharing examples of best practice both by the CPS, government, police and grass roots community charities, as well as people with lived experience of FGM (female genital mutilation) on how they're tackling this growing issue. 

MP Jess Phillips also spoke to launch the event. It's disturbing issue, and unfortunately a growing one.

Hackney - bringing communities together and building trust

Just sharing some methodology, sometimes I'm asked by clients to draw more of a 'rich picture' instead of visual minutes of each individual speaker.

In order to do this I try and get clear on what exactly they'd like depicted and then draw up a sketch using imagery to confirm what's needed:

And then on the day this comes to life!

I had a wonderful day yesterday in my old stomping ground of Hackney, London. This was a community and trust-building event, between the local council and the voluntary services. So many wonderful people doing very worthwhile work in their local communities, coming together to network and suggest ideas for improving the way the council works with them.

Hospital Research into Vaccine Uptake

What would make you take up a vaccine that has many future health benefits? This is what Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance are trying to find out to help more people take up the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. This vaccine helps protect you from various cancers.

I was asked to illustrate the findings of a recent patient survey. This will inform future campaigning and hopefully reach more people.

More on this here: https://cmcanceralliance.nhs.uk/news/young-people-urged-make-sure-they-are-vaccinated-against-cancers

 

Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition (CYPMHC)

This work was for a live event held in London a couple of months ago, it was run by the young members of the Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition https://cypmhc.org.uk/. The event was to celebrate the 15th birthday of the coalition. I attended and listened during the event, and then finished off the drawings post-event. These images were then circulated to keep the event's main messages alive, as well as to amplify the ongoing work of the coalition.