Leapfrog celebrated the achievement of the young designers by holding a Celebration Event at Blackburn Museum last week. It was fantastic to see seven of the young people we worked with, along with their carers and youth workers, our partners Christy Walsh from CANW and Gavin Redhead from Blackburn with Darwen Council and a number of engagement professionals from Blackburn with Darwen Council.
Dee Hennessy, who has facilitated the project introduced the group to Leon Cruickshank for the first time, who congratulated them on their achievement and presented each of them with a certificate. Laura Morris, who led the design and production of The Inspirer, talked everyone through the content of the newspaper before handing everyone their own copies. Counsellor Julie Gunn, Assistant Executive Member for Children’s Services and our partners Gavin and Christy expressed their pride and congratulated the young people.
The response to the newspaper and the work the young people had done was very positive. When asked if the young people wanted to say anything about the newspaper, the young people responded “Wow”, “Can we do it again but for longer?” and “We’re all in here.”
Leapfrog hopes that the young people will be proud of the newspaper and be able to use it and certificate to demonstrate their abiliy in future job interviews. We also hope that the young people will have the confidence to use the tools they designed with the adults they work with to improve and have more control over their meetings.
Laura Wareing
Leon Cruickshank
Dee Hennessy
Gemma Coupe
Hayley Alter