Participation

We are committed to keeping children as key decision makers in the organization and now have both a Children’s Forum and Young Consultants group.

 

Children’s Forum
At Discover children are core to everything we do and the Children’s Forum’s job is to make sure that this keeps happening. The Children’s Forum is made up of 30 children (aged 5 – 12) recruited from local Newham primary schools. Members of the Children’s Forum meet regularly at Discover to discuss, debate and give advice about various issues relating to Discover. Recently the Children’s Forum designed a new Winter Storytelling session for the Community & Education team, provided an in-depth review of Discover’s new play and creative facilities and sat on the interview panel to recruit Discover’s Participation Officer.

As well as being a vital part of Discover the forum is often asked to advise and work with other local organisations. Over the past year the forum has worked with local government agencies, the Barbican and Lend Lease builders of the Athletes Village.

 

Young Consultants and Building the Future
Building the Future is a three year partnership between Discover and Westfield Stratford City engaging children and their families in the regeneration of Stratford.

In the first year the project was comprised of two parts; a schools programme and the Young Consultants programme. The second year has focused on the work with the Young Consultants, a group of 30 children between the ages of 7 – 12 who participate in art projects during school holidays and at weekends.

Year Two’s programme aimed to encourage the Young Consultants to develop investigative skills by exploring the Public Realm. The children acted as consultants; helping to find solutions for issues agreed with Westfield. Working with a film artist, the group investigated different elements of the public realm including public art, street furniture, water features and food courts. The group also worked with visual artists to draw out their ideas and creatively demonstrate them; producing a film ‘Children for Change’ documenting their investigations. At every stage of the project the group were able to meet with, discuss and present their ideas to development professionals from Westfield, and to see how their ideas fed into Westfield’s plans and designs for Stratford City.

 

In Year Three of the programme the Young Consultants have been tasked with producing two editions of a ‘Young Person’s Guide to Stratford’; exploring and presenting the current attractions of Stratford for young people and then looking towards the future and what attractions, events and activities the new Stratford City will bring to the area for young people.

 

Building the Future uses the arts as a carrier of ideas and meaning in listening to children’s voices in relation to urban regeneration issues. Building the Future aspires to give children an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the decision making process by enabling them to express their opinions about the changes in their urban environment, and provide an opportunity for development professionals to listen and engage with children and their ideas.

 

Download a copy of Guide the Way: A Young Person's Guide to Stratford City 

 

 

 

To find out more about Discover’s participation work go to www.designmatters.org.uk