Merton Safeguarding Children Partnership

This is for the annual report for the MSCP, an explainer of the top level things they have achieved and have planned.

Sad to see so much more about preventing domestic and honour-based violence, but at least there is more awareness and an aim to tackle this issue, and create more safe spaces.

The image is very much packed full, so here is a break down of the various ‘parts’:

 

Open University Research into Ageing Well in the Bangladeshi community in East London

On Saturday I was asked back by Dr Manik Deepak-Gopinath from the Open University to live scribe at this celebration and reflection event in London at the end of this 3 year project.

The hope is that this thorough research and findings will accelerate policy change at the highest level.

An emotional day, still so much work to be done, so this is just the beginning.

This research project was a big collaboration between the Open University and several other stakeholders, for more information and to read the final report click here:

https://www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/browse/HousingOlderPeople/DiversityMatters/amar-bari-amar-jibon/

And a snap of the original in situ, it measures 2.25m x 1m:

University College London (UCL) Illustrating a Grand Challenges research project

This research project is a development from the previous one, Cultural Understanding:

The changing world and a lot more turbulence in the world calls for more understanding of each other both internally within the university and externally. A big 5 year project - this was a scoping exercise to advise the new provost on the direction staff and students think it should travel. 

I was given notes post-event to work from but the event itself was a morning of guided discussion.

 

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/

A peek behind the curtain: as part of the commissioning process I worked with two stakeholders, there were several iterations and sketches with notes coming back and forth, like this one below before we decided on the final design.

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:

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.

 

Violence Reduction Unit, London UK

I worked on an event held by the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in London, quite a long time ago at the mayor's office. I was told that they wanted to use the images I created at the live event for a poster, and now I've seen the poster, twice in one week! 

So I thought I'd show it up 'in the wild'. These were both outside primary schools in southeast London, one in New Cross, the other near Bellingham.

The reason 'Why Talk Matters' is because it has the potential to help young people before they end up in dangerous situations, and this campaign is focussing on the very young, because gangs are targeting the young and the vulnerable.
 

Communicating ideas with your Social Work staff team

These images were commissioned earlier this year by an east London borough as part of their social work practice week. They act as reminders to the social workers to capture the child's voice at every stage of their life, including from pre-birth (well, the circumstances of their pre-birth life!) and as a baby.

Merton Children’s Parliament

Had a lovely time yesterday, listening to children in southwest London in the Borough of Merton, as they were talking about their experiences of participating in the Children’s Parliament over the last couple of years.

The children were all around 11 and were really enthusiastic and very confident in speaking up, it was great to be a part of such a positive event. The Children’s Parliament will continue in the next academic year.

I was working digitally and prepared the first of the below images from briefing call notes and pre-designed the layout. The other 3 images were drawn directly from listening live.

Feeling included and cared for at school - Illustrations

I was asked to create a series of images aimed at educators for the Derby County Community Trust INCLUSION conference coming up later this month. I’ll be back live scribing up in Derby (go the Rams!) stadium in a couple of weeks, can’t wait :)

The first sequence shows the effects of applying strict rules instead of taking the time to understand the child, so by the end of the day she’s miserable. The second sequence shows the pupil feeling seen and heard, and the result is that he’s had the opposite experience, and he’s had a great day.