Child Friendly Redbridge Updates

Thank you to all the young people who voted in the 2024 youth election.

Votes are being counted, and your new Youth MPs will be announced next week. Watch here!

#ChildFriendlyRedbridge #YouthElection2024

World Children’s Day 2023, Youth Climate and Sustainability Forum

As part of Redbridge’s commitment to protecting and promoting the rights of children and young people, Redbridge have hosted and promoted several events across the Council for World Children’s Day. One of these events was the borough’s first Youth Climate and Sustainability Forum in the Town Hall.

Here is a snippet from a press release about the event:

“Led by Redbridge Council’s Neighbourhood Education and Engagement Team, the event gave the youngsters the chance to network with each other, share green achievements and ideas, whilst broadening their skills and knowledge through workshop activities and discussions with a panel of leading environmental experts.

Students also participated in activities and workshops run by individuals and organisations involved in environmental work. It included a Team Repair Workshop demonstrating repair skills that can help fix broken items so they can be reused, instead of discarded.

Other workshops included an art session, and an exploration of biodiversity in Redbridge. Students also heard from, and quizzed, a panel of green experts from Earthwatch Europe, Team Repair, and Redbridge Council.”

Our World Children’s Day celebrations form just a part of our wider Child Friendly Redbridge efforts. The Council is currently working with the United Nations Committee for UNICEF (Unicef UK) to become recognised as a Child Friendly Community. As such, we are committed to promoting the rights of young people in Redbridge and putting their rights and voices at the heart of decision making across the borough. We are currently working are aiming to be the first local authority in England to be recognised as a Child Friendly Community.

To find out more about our Child Friendly Redbridge programme efforts and aims, and how you can get follow the link here.

As part of UNICEF World Children's Day 2023, our Child Friendly Youth Ambassadors took the opportunity to discuss the question 'Why is it so important that decision makers listen to children and young people’s voices?'.

They discussed everything from politics and climate change to mental health and freedom of speech. As you can see from the photos below, they had some insightful conversations, and made wonderful mindmaps too!

World Children's Day Mental Health Engagement Event - 20th November 2023

The Redbridge Children and Young People’s Policy Development Committee is a group of councillors who are working together to develop new policy proposals for Redbridge. The group, chaired by Cllr Saima Ahmed, decided that mental health was one of its key priorities and was keen to engage with young people to learn more.

A group of young people aged 11-25+ met with councillors on World Children’s Day in the Town Hall to discuss the barriers that they and their peers may face when accessing support for mental health services, whether that is in a school setting, in the community or in direct contact with the council.

The young people shared that social media pressures, anxiety around their personal information remaining confidential, stigma around mental health from their families, friends and/or communities, and a lack of trusted peer support networks all pose challenges to their mental health.

The councillors took this feedback on board following dedicated discussion groups and will feed this into their final recommendations report in 2024.

Redbridge has seen fantastic results using Virtual Reality (VR) in social work interventions with young people exposed to child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, radicalisation, and other risks outside of the home.

‘Virtual Reality’ (VR) is the use of computer technology to create simulated environments. This places users inside a three-dimensional experience. Instead of viewing a screen in front of them, users are immersed in and interact with 3D, 360-degree worlds.

As part of a project with Enfield and Waltham Forest, professionals at Redbridge Council have used VR films that follow teenage characters who are affected by a range of issues. In a short period of time, the films create an immediate impact on participants.

One of the VR films used by practitioners is ‘Joe’s Story’. We follow the story of a boy named Joe through his eyes. Joe is introduced to an older male who tells him he can help him make some money. The films show how the groomers use fear, intimidation and debt bondage; after buying Joe a phone, they coerce Joe into holding and distributing drugs and threaten him if he does not comply. The immersive experience of the VR enables users to put themselves in Joe’s shoes.

The Children and Families team at Redbridge is using VR to make sure that their work has a child’s rights-based approach. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that children have a right to be protected from abuse and violence; these videos help young people and the adults who look after them to identify signs of risk and talk to professionals about how to deal with dangerous situations and stay safe. The VR films are largely from a child’s perspective, which means they highlight the importance of the voice and experiences of the child.

Another key principle of a child’s rights-based approach is dignity in all circumstances, such as in schools and in other public spaces. The VR films show the ways in which children can be exposed to harm outside of the home and how their home environment can affect this risk. There are also some other VR videos about adopting and fostering that show how difficult it can be for children to be separated from their parents. These emphasise that young people should be involved in deciding what is best for them in these difficult situations; children are the experts in their own lives and should always have a say.

Across the three boroughs, the professionals who used the VR gave excellent feedback on the impact of the technology on young people. One Redbridge social worker said: ‘The young person who used the VR with me usually says nothing to me, or just gives “yes” or “no” answers. After using VR, it was the most talkative I’ve ever seen him.’

Another worker told us: ‘The young person loved it. She found the VR so interactive and surreal because she felt like she was in the situation herself. Looking at the scenario from a bird’s eye view gave her the scope to learn about situations that could easily happen to her.’

Parents said that after using the VR, they had a better understanding of what their child may be going through, felt better able to talk to professionals about how to protect their child, and were more confident to talk to their child about what they may be going through.

One social worker told us: ‘The young person’s mum couldn’t visualise what a traphouse looked like. The immersive experience really opened her eyes to the reality; she couldn’t have imagined how bad it would be. The experience brought her more on board with our safeguarding plan.’

Redbridge practitioners will continue to use the VR in 1-2-1s with young people, with their parents and in group settings.

The Child Friendly Partnership is excited to be supporting Andrew Brown, a local artist and educator to help shape the future of public art in Ilford and compile stories through the camera lens.

Andrew Brown is based at SPACE Studios in Ilford and has been involved with schools, further and higher education locally, nationally and internationally. He uses analogue, digital and alternative photographic processes alongside soundscapes, documents and artefacts to explore the impact on communities of rapid changes in the built and natural environment in East London.

Ilford has a strong and historic relationship with innovation in photography. In 1879, Ilford Limited, a world-renowned brand of film and photographic materials, was founded. This factory on Roden Street was demolished in 1976 (now Sainsbury’s), breaking the visual link between photography and Ilford as a place was broken.

Andrew, on behalf of UP Projects will be running workshops to help influence public art at this former site. A proposal to redevelop the site with new housing, public realm and the reprovision of the Sainsbury’s will need to understand the views of local people. The workshops will be an opportunity to influence the kinds of public art to be planned for the site with themes rooted in Ilford’s history of invention.

How to get involved?

There are 3 upcoming workshops, which will explore how public art can draw on Ilford's history to engage with diverse communities, renew links to the past and help envision and shape the future.

You will be able to explore Ilford’s role in the popularisation of photography using images and artefacts, including cameras and media from different periods of history. You will learn about analogue photography and the process behind making photographic prints. If you have any black and white photographs, please do bring them along!

Follow this link to register for workshops 2 and 3: From Ilford to the World and Back Again Tickets, London | Eventbrite

As part of the Child Friendly Redbridge Action Plan Launch Day, young CFR Ambassadors took Redbridge Council staff and dignitaries on a tour of Ilford Town Centre.

The first stop was a new billboard outside SPACE Studios. The image is called “Out of this world” and was designed by the British Congolese artist Djofray Makumbu with young people from Hainault Youth Centre.

The artwork was created during a series of workshops held at Hainault Youth Centre, where young people created and illustrated the characters and provided the art direction for the work.

The young people imagined a fun, playful alternate version of their borough, with creative ideas including a character flying on a unicorn.

During their co-design process, young people from Hainault offered fresh perspectives that influenced the eventual final design. Young people drew pictures for Makumbu to use as a reference as part of the collaborative creative process. Makumbu valued hearing the young people’s opinions on what the piece should look like.

They told the council staff and councillors that, as part of the fun interactive nature of this artwork, the artist has actually included a picture of himself in the artwork.

Can you find him?

You can find out more about the exhibition on the SPACE Studios website.

Space Studios also has an exhibition inside at the moment called Mammoth Loop by artist Cecilia Charlton. This is a child-friendly exhibition and includes workshops for children and families to learn skills with textiles. You can also read more about this on the SPACE Studios website.

To coincide with the launch of the Child-Friendly Action Plan launch on Saturday 26 February, Youth Election 2022 announcements were made by Cllr Elaine Norman, Cabinet Member for Young People and Children.

Over 12,000 people voted to elect members of Youth Parliament (MYP) for 2022-24, who represent Redbridge nationally and run Redbridge Youth Council as well as working on their manifesto promises. 96 young people from Redbridge were nominated as candidates which has been the highest number yet!

38% of young people in Redbridge aged between 11 to 19 years voted (based on 32,862 11-19 years old resident population). The school with the highest Youth Election turnout for 2022 was Loxford School with 1,255 ballots. The school with the highest percentage turnout was Ilford County High School with 98% of pupils voting.

Colin Stewart, Director of Education at Redbridge Council highlighted some of the key achievements by Redbridge Youth Council (RYC):

• Redbridge had the highest percentage turnout in London and are third in the country overall in the national Make Your Mark campaign reflecting the importance Youth Voice is given in Redbridge
• Young people co-designed artwork with Space Studios and helped to develop a nature map of Redbridge and set up Grow Zones around Fairlop Waters
• Helped to support young people with a detailed Back to School Covid-19 leaflet on what to expect when returning to school after lockdown
• Took their research and development of young people’s priorities to the External Scrutiny Panel in February 2022.

Councillor Elaine Norman, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People announced the newly elected Youth MPs and Ambassadors. She said “Congratulations once again to our 2022 Members of Youth Parliament and well done to all the candidates who worked so hard to make the 2022 Youth Election. I would like to close by once again thanking you all for attending and thanking our newly elected Youth MPs and Ambassadors in advance for the work they will do in helping to make Redbridge a Child Friendly Borough.”

A big thank you to our previous MYPs, Ahmed Rahman and Faizan Ahmed and deputy, Raul Andrei-Tinca for all their hard work over the past two years, especially during the pandemic. A warm welcome to our newly elected Youth MPs, Abdul Mateen Riaz and Annmarie Jaxen, and Deputy, Aarav Prabhkar.

You can find out more about the Child Friendly Redbridge Programme here and the people involved here: https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/childfriendly/child-friendly-redbridge/

You can also follow what we are doing on the following Instagram accounts: @redbridgeyouth and @redbridgecouncil and via Twitter @redbridgelive

Please do follow, like and share using the hashtag #childfriendlyredbridge #youngredbridge or #cfr

The Child Friendly Redbridge Partnership launched its Child-Friendly Redbridge Action Plan in partnership with Unicef UK and Redbridge Council on Saturday 26 February.

The launch event was planned and delivered by the Child Friendly Redbridge Youth Ambassadors. It came about as a result of 18 months of conversations with children, young people and their parents, identifying their concerns and looking at ways to work together to find solutions. These groups shared their thoughts on what they want to improve in Redbridge for children and young people and ways they could work with services and professionals to make this happen.

The Action Plan was approved by Cabinet in December 2021 by Councillors, with two of the Borough's Child-Friendly Redbridge (CFR) Youth Ambassadors sharing statements about why the Action Plan was important to them.

The launch event revealed how children, young people and families will work together over the next three years for the next two to three years.

The launch was very well received with Redbridge Mayor, Cllr Roy Emmett and the leader of Redbridge Council, Cllr Jas Athwal opening the event and sharing why Redbridge joined the Unicef UK Child Friendly Programme. The CFR Ambassadors then took over, providing further insight into the programme combined with leading a tour around the town centre, highlighting some of the changes that the Council and partners have implemented with children and young people. These included:

• Showcasing a Billboard at Space Studio’s created by artist Djofray Mukumbu and co-designed with young people from Hainault Youth Centre
• Initiation of greening works on Wilderness Street to create a vibrant space for activities and workshops in the summer
• New play equipment installation chosen by children from local primary schools
• New mosaic art installation created by local artist Sahra Hersi in collaboration with young people.

There was also a presence of the local police cadets, with one of the CFR Youth Ambassadors highlighting role of Police as partners in the Unicef programme to address safety concerns, raised by young people.

Councillor Jas Athwal, Leader of the Council, said: "Obtaining UNICEF UK Child-Friendly status for our borough is a key milestone in our mission for Redbridge to be a borough in which children and young people, regardless of their background, thrive. This action plan provides all of us with a collective opportunity to build upon the great work that has been achieved or is in progress and push youth participation, involvement and influence across the council and our partners in the areas that matter most to children and young people”.

Yusuf, a Child-Friendly Redbridge Youth Ambassador, said: "I got involved as UNICEF Child-Friendly Redbridge Ambassador because I believe young people deserve to grow up in an environment that lets us aim high and achieve our goals by reaching our potential. The council must embed a commitment to our rights in every decision it makes. Children and young people need and deserve a voice. You won't hear us unless you listen to us. We need to be included in important conversations"

As part of the launch, the Youth Election 2022 announcement was made by Cllr Elaine Norman. Over 12,000 young people voted to elect members of Youth Parliament (MYP) for 2022-24, who represent Redbridge nationally and run the Redbridge Youth Council as well as working on their manifesto promises. A big thank you to our previous MYPs, Ahmed Rahman and Faizan Ahmed and deputy, Raul Andrei-Tinca for all their hard work over the past 2 years, especially during the pandemic. We would like to welcome our newly elected Youth MPs, Abdul Mateen Riaz and Annmarie Jaxen, and Deputy, Aarav Prabhakar.

Partners including Vision Libraries, the Ilford Exchange, Ilford Business Improvement District (BID) and Space Studios all joined in the fun, providing lots of free activities for children and young people, including:

• A digital makerspace
• Tech activities for all ages
• An eco-conscious Repair Café
• Hungry Caterpillar finger puppet crafts and Children's Library trail
• A Keith Haring-inspired craft workshop
• A chance to talk to the organisers of the Redbridge Youth Festival 2022 and let them know what you would like to see included in the festival.
• The chance to speak to Redbridge’s Community Hubs team

A very big thank you to everyone that was involved in the organisation and participation of the launch, which was an absolute success attracting many people from the community!

We would like to express our gratitude to our colleagues at Redbridge Council and partners who helped us to reach this stage, these includes Redbridge Safer Neighbourhoods Team, Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure, Redbridge Institute, Redbridge Youth Service and Centres, Frenford Clubs, Essex Boys and Girls, Mill Grove and the Rose Walton Centre, Children Centres in Redbridge, Redbridge Safer Transport Team, North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Barking Clinical Commissioning Group, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, Redbridge Young Adult Carers Project, Redbridge Community and Voluntary Service and their Young Advisors, Redbridge Healthwatch, New City College Redbridge, Local Primary and Secondary Schools (especially our Young Ambassadors representing young people from their schools), Barnardo’s, Citizens Advice Redbridge and their Youth Forum, Ilford BID and Ilford Exchange.

You can find out more about the Child Friendly Redbridge Programme here and the people involved here: https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/childfriendly/child-friendly-redbridge/

You can also follow what we are doing on the following Instagram accounts: @redbridgeyouth and @redbridgecouncil and via Twitter @redbridgelive

Please do follow, like and share using the hashtag #childfriendlyredbridge #youngredbridge or #cfr

As part of the UNICEF UK Child Friendly Communities initiative, the Child Friendly Redbridge Partnership engaged with over 2,500 children and young people across schools, youth clubs, community groups, children’s centres and youth councils, asking them what they love about Redbridge and what they want to change. From these discussions, the Partnership worked with children and young people to create the Child Friendly Redbridge Action Plan, which we are launching on Saturday 26 February 2022!

During the afternoon, our fantastic Child Friendly Redbridge Ambassadors will talk with the Leader of the Council about why the programme matters to them, what it has achieved so far and what we have coming up.

There are also lots of free activities taking place in Ilford Town Centre on 26 February 2022 for children and young people to celebrate the launch of the Child Friendly Redbridge Action Plan. Join us for events for all ages taking place from 11am to 4pm – there’s something suitable for everyone.

Come along to Central Library for a range of activities, including:

• a digital makerspace
• tech activities for all ages
• an eco-conscious Repair Café
• Hungry Caterpillar finger puppet crafts and Children’s Library trail
• a Keith Haring-inspired craft workshop
• the official announcement of the new Make Your Mark representatives – complete with mocktails and festival vibes!
• the chance to speak to our Community Hubs team, who will be giving away ‘seeds for your thoughts’ on what you want to see in your neighbourhood!

Read the full list of Leisure and Culture events provided by our partner Vision with timings here.

Wander over to the Exchange Ilford to check out:

• puppet shows (at The Loft at Level 1 at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm)
• balloon modelling
• Ellie the Elephant joining in the fun!

And walk around the Town Centre to get the chance to:

• speak to local police about what makes you feel safe
• see the new play equipment chosen by local children
• check out the new mosaic designed with young people
• look at the new billboard designed with young people from Hainault

Check out our flyer for more information.

You can find out more about the Child Friendly Redbridge programme here and the people involved here: https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/childfriendly/child-friendly-redbridge/

You can also follow what we are doing on the following Instagram accounts: @redbridgeyouth and @redbridgecouncil and via Twitter @redbridgelive

Please do follow, like and share using the hashtag #childfriendlyredbridge #youngredbridge or #cfr