Looking back at #LetsCreate
#StaySafeClub edition!
Thanks to support and funding from Arts Council England, Comics Youth CIC were a part of a national initiative in the Summer of 2020 that gifted over 25,000 vulnerable children and young people across the UK with a pack of art materials delivered to their homes during the peak of the 2020 pandemic. These packs were distributed to young people as a means of enabling them to take part in therapeutic activities during the challenging times that COVID-19 brought, ensuring that children from deprived communities did not miss out on the play, wellbeing, and educational benefits of creativity whilst away from school.
In working closely with the Liverpool Cultural Education Partnership (LCEP) CY focused our delivery of the ‘Let’s Create’ packs through the expansion of a #StaySafeClub initiative which was developed, designed, and curated by children and young people aged 12-25 from our class of 2020 #SafeSpaces program (kindly funded by the COOP foundation). This included the creation of a ‘Stay Safe Club Zine’, ‘Doodle Adventure Sketchbook’, ‘Pen Pal scheme’, sticker sheets, art supplies, and mental health-focused journal to help young people navigate the uncertainty of the year itself.
To make this a reality we worked in partnership with Merseyside Youth Association, Liverpool’s Looked After Children’s Team, Fans for Foodbanks, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Museums, and YPAS/GYRO to share resources and make the pack as inclusive and exciting as possible! At its core, our boxes aimed to provide a ray of light for young people to feel valued, supported, and cared for.
In the first phase of the initiative, 600 #StaySafeClub creative care boxes were sent to children and young people who were most in need of a creative boost during this difficult time.
“I love how the Stay Safe Club pack has helped so many other young people like me experiencing similar things, right across Liverpool. In such isolating and polarising times, the packs have helped me feel understood and recognized-and the creative contents of the packs like planners and kind poems really helped me in the day-to-day-management, of well, life. ”
“Lockdown was really hard on my family and my dad lost his job. Not being in school was hard and not being able to see my friends was even harder. Drawing is my favourite thing to do but I didn’t have anything at home and really missed art classes in school. I didn’t want to ask my parents for any art things so this was perfect. It helped me feel calm and in touch with people again. I really loved the doodle adventure sketchbook’. ”
By continuing our partnership with the Liverpool LCEP and with support from the #CraftCouncil the second phase of the #StaySafeClub boxes was extended to a further 300 looked after children across Liverpool over December 2020. This would not have been possible without the love and determination of the team at the Liverpool Learning Partnership who not only part-funded the second wave of the #StaySafeClub, but also hand-delivered the boxes to Looked After Children in schools all across Liverpool.
#StaySafeClub 2.0 included polymer clay, a DIY ‘make your own’ pencil pal, art materials, mental health bullet journal, Christmas cards, risograph print, festive sticker sheet, and Liverpool’s first youth-led newspaper, which you can read here!
“I read the newspaper on christmas day when I was missing all my friends and just felt alone. The poem about hope helped me see that life could be good again.”
The impact of support from the #LetsCreate initiative and wider partner funding from Liverpool Learning Partnership has widened the scope of our reach within the Liverpool City Region, enabling us to engage with an additional 700 young people who wouldn’t normally access Comics Youth projects. From this, we have seen a rise in young people registering with our service in addition to over 100 inquiries from community members on how they can donate, volunteer, or fundraise for Comics Youth.
As a result of Let’s Create and Let’s Craft, the Liverpool Cultural Education Partnership is now connected to grass-roots community organisations and services who support some of our city’s most marginalised and vulnerable young people. These include food banks, CAMHS and the virtual schools team at School Improvement Liverpool who support the education of Looked After Children. We will keep in touch with these agencies to build better awareness of the needs of their young people, and to offer them ongoing opportunities to engage with art and culture. It’s also been amazing to work so closely with the Comics Youth team. The LCEP has learnt a lot from Comics Youth about how to embody the principles of youth-led cultural engagement, putting the needs of marginalised young people first and empowering them creatively. Their young people have designed all the creative resources included in the packs we’ve distributed, making them relevant and engaging for recipients. We look forward to future collaboration!
We know there is a greater need to fundraise for #StaySafeClub3 within our city. Post our December callout we received an additional 500+ requests from young people across our region. We will be working hard behind the scenes to make this happen <3
The ‘Lets’ Create’ packs project was led by the network of ten Bridge organisations in England working in partnership with Arts Council England with support from National Lottery Funds, the Craft Council, and other funders. The delivery has been coordinated by the Bridges with their local partners and other philanthropic support.
For more information about the national ‘Let’s Create’ initiative, visit artscouncil.org.uk/news-and-announcements/staying-creative-helps-us-feel-good
About Arts Award
· Art Award is a set of qualifications for children and young people up to the age of 25 which supports them to grow as artists and art leaders.
· It inspires young people to connect with and take part in the wider arts world through participating in arts activities, experiencing arts events, being inspired by artists around their work, leading their own projects, and researching career pathways. artsaward.org.uk
· The unique qualification is managed by Trinity College London in association with Arts Council England and is normally available across the UK through schools and Arts Award centers that offer arts activities.