Director’s Blog – Lisa Charlotte Davis
Reflecting on this fab recognition of our work, I want to take a moment to build a picture of how a programme like this is built over time, in multiple iterations, in response to feedback, incorporating the effort of so many.
And to Kate Gorman for all the hard work that went into Changing Relations receiving this recognition for our Creative Health in Primary Schools programme Sometimes it Hurts.
I want to take a moment to zoom out to build a picture of the way a programme like this is built over time, in multiple iterations, in response to feedback and incorporating the effort of so many.
🐣 Having delivered our Demystifying Domestic Abuse Workplace Learning Programme to a group of teachers, we observed evident anxiety about triggering young people who might be affected and concluded there was a need to capture “the child’s view!”
🐤 Working with long-term partner organisation Creative Youth Opportunities, Creative Producer Pollyanna Turner, Writer Bridget Hamilton, Illustrator Tamsin Rees and Animator Sheryl Jenkins developed our story series Sometimes it Hurts (back in 2020-21!!!) to capture the lived experiences of real young people in their homes but also amongst friends and in schools as people realised something might not be 100% ok. Watch the original animation here.
🐤 We trialed the stories with young people at Daisy Arts, Bishop Auckland College and King James I Academy in Bishop Auckland, as well as with a group of professionals to gage responses and consider what the next steps of development should be.
🐥 This led to the Rabbits in Headlights project, where researcher Nikki Rutter & creative facilitator Sarah Stamp came on board (in 2023) to develop activities around the stories to enable teachers to use them as a way to open conversation with young people they had realised were affected.
🐥 Several schools supported this development, with their young people testing activities, commissioning further illustrations and helping guide the development of a website Vida Creative designed to house the stories – https://sometimesithurts.org.uk/
🐥 Our partner schools tested the activities, fed back on what else they would need to support their capacity to deliver them, whilst we developed and tested 2 CPD sessions to give teachers an appropriate background understanding of the issue and develop their familiarity with the stories and creative tools we had designed.
🐦 This brings us to the latest stage in development, wherein additional schools and youth groups have been involved in shaping 2 half term schemes of work based around the Sometimes it Hurts stories, aimed at children in Key Stage 2 & Sarah Stamp has been joined by new facilitator, children’s author Victoria Downes.
So you can see why it is so wonderful for our work to be recognised at this point – so much effort from so many has gone in to developing it over quite a number of years!
To everyone who has been involved in any way in this process – thank you 🥰
