“This was a WOW experience. I am open!”
Alba, 9
With a future of increased challenges and technology advances, we know creativity, Innovation and Communications are essential skills to cultivate in the workforce of tomorrow – yet often underserved through the current school system. In addition, neurodiversity is getting more recognition, not just in terms of neurodivergence, but showing the importance of different thinking styles. So how do we support the development of all thinkers?
Playful, Child-led, Creative
Hackney Young Voices aimed to showcase how this could be done in the classroom, right now in the current system – by designing a project that embraces individuality and neurodiversity through an an approach that is:
- play based
- interest-led
- creative focus
- child-centric
- validation principles
“I can’t believe my picture is going to be seen by thousands of people. I feel famous!”
– Nana, 9
We worked with 30 children and young people in Hackney across one primary school, one secondary school and an adventure playground, and the adults supporting them.
We delivered 20 workshops and 4 online Q&A sessions with the support of 29 creative practitioners and expert advisers. A team of 6 university film students from Queen Mary University also took part in documenting the project.
“It was brilliant. He was thrilled with the project; I haven’t seen that before. I think he felt empowered and part of something big and grown up and high quality. He was very proud.”
— Parent of participant
Short intervention with a big impact
With only 6-8 hours spent with each group over the course of the project, it also showed that even short interventions can have a big impact on the participants.Queen Mary University conducted an evaluation programme with parents, teachers and children with core outcomes showing marked increases :
- Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence by a third
- Social Skills and Confidence with Peers
- Teamwork
“I wanna make MORE, I have a hunger for creativity”
– Tristan, 11
The billboards were on show across three prime locations in Hackney for a cumulative 80 days and reached over 200,000 views.
The project was featured in the Discover Young Hackney Festival, Hackney Citizen and Love Hackney and was fantastically received by the public.
Learning from the project, free creative thinking resources were developed for schools and other youth organisations to have a go at the project.