Mark Yorke, Wolverhampton graphic graduate, who runs Born Communication has an interesting project on offer:
The background
Born
Communication have been working with Creative Health CIC (responsible for developing
and managing praXis arts and health network) and NHS Dudley to develop Dudley
Kick Ash. The Kick Ash programme of work encourages young people to be free from
tobacco and to participate in activities in smoke free environments. Young
people living in the Dudley Borough have the opportunity to submit ideas for a
project and apply for a small grant, which they use to support an activity that
takes place in a smoke free environment. A steering group of young people
awards the grants. Another group of young people are been supported by Born
Communication to develop their skills to document
and
profile the work.
More
information about Dudley Kick Ash can be found at http://www.dudleykickash.com/
NHS
Dudley are committed to developing inclusive and empowering methods of
engagement
to support young people to become more able to take responsibility for their own
health and well being and that of their friends and families. With limited
resources it has become even more important to target specific groups of young
people and actively encourage them to be involved in activities. These may be
young people of a certain age, live in a specific community or face specific
health and well being issues. In addition to this Dudley NHS are also keen to
support young people to become health champions and encourage their friends to
make positive changes in their behaviour.
To
this end the partnership with Creative Health CIC and Born Communication has
been extended to develop the Canteen Programme.
2.
The Canteen model
The
project aims to build on and extend the involvement by young people in Kick Ash
by supporting a youth led public health movement. Canteen will provide young
people with an opportunity to air their views and concerns, raise issues,
participate in activities and play an active role in health campaigns.
Canteen
will be led by a group of young people, supported by:
•
arts and media specialists
•
youth workers with specialist knowledge of health and wellbeing issues
including safe practice to use existing social networking tools to involve,
inform and engageother young people in health and wellbeing activities. Canteen
will become a young person led virtual health reference group for the PCT and
their partners.
The initial Canteen campaign will focus on
promoting smoke free environments and will:
• Raise the awareness of the
dangers of tobacco and exposure to second-hand
smoke
amongst other young people
• Promote smokefree
environments for all
• Challenge current media
stereotypes presenting smoking as a ‘cool’
characteristic.
Engaging
young people in Canteen
Phase
one of the programme will be to establish a group of young people from
different backgrounds who will act as the founding members of Canteen. They
will work with specialists to design and promote Canteen ensuring the project reflects
the needs and aspirations of young people living in Dudley. At this stage we
anticipate that young people involved in the Kick Ash programme may be
interested in being founder members.
Launching
the model
Canteen
will be launched in 20 schools across Dudley. At the moment each schools host a
Quit Smoking presentation. The content of the presentation will be reviewed and
updated to inspire young people to be involved in health and wellbeing debates
it will also include an invite to young people to join the Canteen network. A
target of involving a minimum of 1000 young people within the Dudley Borough
has been set. This will be done using facebook as a key marketing tool. The
lead group will then work with their support team to develop the debate, when
new information is ready for distribution messages can be sent direct to young
people. Links can also be made to existing projects and websites.
Targeting
specific groups of people
In
addition to the general promotion specific groups of young people (depending on
the targets of the partners) will need to be actively involved in the
programme. These groups of young people will be the ones Dudley NHS find most
challenging to involve in their work.
To
achieve this an arts and heath worker will develop and run the Canteen outreach
programme. The programme would run in partnership with specialist
organisations. As part of this programme young people will be supported to
apply for a Kick Ash grant to run their own activities.
Job details to be found after the jump
