Everyday Creativity for Young People
Young people + creativity + Advocacy = Better Health
Everyday Creativity for young people set out to co-design an online platform with young people which would engage them creatively as content creators and create meaningful content to support and engage other young people. The project was led by arts partners, Eggtooth, Isolation Station and Home Live Art, working with other youth organisations including White Rock Youth Theatre, Allsorts, Children in Care Council, Dv8 Sussex and De La Warr Pavilion Young Creatives.
The key facilitators for the project were Katy Baird, Sophia Bolton, Dan Matthews and the Nova Twins.
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what happened?
The result of the project was the Instagram channel LUMA_en, launched in June 2021. In March 2021 the team connected with groups of young people across East Sussex that were already meeting online and joined them in the online space to explore what they would want from a social media channel.
The feedback was a channel that would promote positivity, learning and inclusion and that mental health was a key issue for young people. A core group then formed and met regularly online, supported by industry leading creative professionals and social activists, to develop the channel- Luma-en and create content.
“It’s just about normalising and talking about these kinds of issues (mental health) and starting the conversations and as soon as everyone is comfortable talking about it, it becomes less of an unspoken thing we know we have to address.”
Participant, Interview
Throughout the project young people worked in groups and independently on video, photography, scripted and graphic text storytelling, with coaching and support in design, shooting, editing, writing, social media storytelling and creating & maintaining a brand.
“It’s been very beneficial… it definitely helps me with my mental health…especially now since we’ve been …allowed to do this sort of stuff in person, it helps me a lot more…It’s a lot more positive and beneficial when we are with each other. ”
Participant, Interview
more
everyday creativity
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This project needed more time than was available. The next step is to launch the project more widely and have in place the infrastructure to support more young people across the county to create content. There are plans for a 2nd phase of LUMA, so watch this space.
“I liked the idea of working with lots of people and being able to create the content that we want to see on Instagram. I know for myself, that I go on Instagram and I leave feeling deflated, because you just find yourself in a hole, constantly scrolling. I jumped on the idea of this, because I really liked that I could have a say on the new type of content we could put out.”
Participant, Focus Group
Resources and Links
The channel Luma_En that has been created, and its associated content, can be viewed via this link: https://www.instagram.com/luma_en/