The document summarizes a meeting about connecting children and young people during the pandemic. It includes an agenda with presentations on creative connections during COVID, youth leadership programs, and collective experiences. The VOICES research project is discussed, which examines challenges of COVID on children living in poverty and how schools and services are responding. Key findings include impacts on school, digital world, relationships, health, culture, home, transport, and employment. The research is having impact by working with partners on priority areas like transport, connecting with others, and employment.

1. Coming together: the importance of
young people being connected
Thursday 15th June 2021
www.voicesproject.co.uk @voicesprojectNE

3. Agenda
4pm Welcome and introduction to VOICES
Liz Todd, Professor of Educational Inclusion, Newcastle University
Luke Bramhall, School Research and Delivery Service Manager, Children North East
4.15pm Culture Bridge North East
Clare Elliott, Programme Manager, Culture Bridge North East
4.25pm Connecting children and young people in and through the pandemic
5pm Small group break-out session - What can we do across all organisations to
develop play and interaction for children and young people now and encourage
connection?
5.30pm Whole group sharing, questions and comments
5.45pm Next steps and closing comments
6pm Finish

4. Connecting children and young people in and through the pandemic
• Helen Gorsky, Assistant Head Chillingham Road Primary School - Creative
connections during COVID
• Rachel Hamer and Rory Williams, Sunderland Culture, and Emily Findlay,
Sunderland Culture’s Young Ambassadors - Celebrate Different Collective:
Youth leadership throughout COVID
• Kiz Crosbie, Artistic Director, Mortal Fools - Defeating our Worrits Together
through collective group experiences and co-creation
• Paula Hamilton, School Research and Delivery Practitioner, Children North
East and the West End Schools’ Trust - Playful Lives
• Karen Deen, Together Middlesbrough and Cleveland and Heather Insull,
Youth Focus North East - Feast of Fun

5. • Project overview (Luke)
• Current findings (Liz)
• What happens next and reflections (Luke and
Liz)

6. A co-production approach to research
Newcastle University: Liz Todd, Lucy Tiplady, Lydia Wysocki
Children North East: Luke Bramhall, Cathryn Gathercole,
Suzanne Butler, Andrew Thorp, Gwen Dalziel, Janice Holloway

7. • To document and analyse the key
challenges of the Covid19 pandemic
on CYP living in poverty
• To explore how schools and services
are responding to needs of CYP living
in poverty
• To facilitate changes in policy and
practice in response to evidence of
the needs of CYP living in poverty

8. Activities
• 2 stage consultation, write/ draw answers to 3 questions:
What has been a challenge recently? What has been good
recently? What is important to children and young people
now?
• Online/face to face focus groups. Health and wellbeing,
culture, home, school, digital world and transport
• Includes: Durham, North Tyneside, South Tyneside,
Sunderland, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Stockton, Newcastle and
Northumberland, Redcar & Cleveland, Darlington,
Middlesbrough
• Comics and videos co-produced with young people
• Policy and practice change events with local and national
organisations
• Nov 2020-May 2022 (had intended Nov 2021 end)

9. Project partners
… and your
organisation?

10. Current findings - Main themes
• School: online learning, milestone celebrations, covid restrictions in school
• Digital World: time spent gaming, the digital divide
• Relationships: deepening relationships but missing people
• Health and Wellbeing: time spent exercising, eating, sleeping, mental
health
• Culture and Leisure: taking up new skills but missing doing many things
• Home and Housing: space for learning, relationships
• Transport: school buses
• Employment: future and jobs

13. • Changes at school - ‘We can’t play with friends in different classes’
• From a year 3 pupil - ‘Got better at using the computer’
• Hard to put things into words - ‘Feeling a bit dull – not normal’
• Positives - ‘Got to see mam more’
• Frustration at government messages - ‘They try to make us feel bad with those ‘look
them in the eyes’ adverts – but they caused it!’
• During 1st lockdown – ‘It was like being on holiday – I could have a lie in…. But then I got
bored’
• About going on buses ‘scared, coz if one person has a cough we could all get it’
• Going back to school was ‘nearly the weirdest thing I have ever done’
• Significant bereavements – ‘Sad for all the people who have died – 10 in my family, 5 in
Newcastle and 5 in Bangladesh’
• Year 6 student - ‘We’ve missed out on trips… and assemblies… when you get an award
and everyone claps you feel really good about yourself’
• 16+ student – ‘you can’t not have your phone on you – 100+ hours a week’
• Mixed emotions - ‘It was nice to see them but sad – I felt like my cousins were in a cage’
• Not all change - ‘I want to go on holiday – I never went on holiday before’
• New hobbies -‘Being able to do dancing – at first I couldn’t do any’
• On having fewer people in school – ‘It’s actually a bit easier coz I can say more things’

14. Having an impact!
• Advisory group on engagement and impact with local,
regional and national partners
• Action focus on 3 areas, areas that change with each research
cohort.
• Current action areas: Transport; Connecting with others; and
Employment
• Working with groups of young people to meet with key
representatives in each of the action areas. Already met with bus
companies and NEXUS. Meeting with businesses around
employment taking place this week.
• Webinars to get service providers talking together and taking
action

16. From
Newcastle,
a new fortnightly podcast by
@UniofNewcastle
Episode 1
Professor Liz Todd and Luke
Bramhall discuss child poverty
and the @voicesprojectNE
Listen
at https://podcasts.ncl.ac.uk/f
romnewcastle/

17. Reflections
• Children at the centre – deep listening
• Provision for children and young people should prioritise access to a
range of activities that develop and enrich wider skills, leadership,
play, interaction with others and develop broader social capital.
• Willingness of service providers and youth organisations to work with
us in both data collection and impact
• Willingness of organisations to work on impact ie Schools North East,
transport companies, employer organisations, Culture Bridge

18. Keep in touch
https://www.voicesproject.co.uk/
Twitter: @voicesprojectNE
liz.todd@ncl.ac.uk
luke.bramhall@children-ne.org.uk
lucy.tiplady@ncl.ac.uk
lydia.wysocki@ncl.ac.uk