Participation in Action: Children express feelings on life in care through mural

The messages were the work of nine children aged seven to 19. Instead of writing their thoughts, they created a giant piece of artwork. The young people are all members of the Care Council Listen Up Group, which is supported by the Children’s Society’s Children’s Rights Service in Rochdale.

The group organised a project to help the children express thoughts and emotions about living in care. The result was a bright and colourful canvas painted by the young people, and decorated with symbols that represent their combined experiences.

The children began the project by answering questions put to them by trained “graphic facilitators”. They then chose visual metaphors to represent their feelings. When asked to describe the impact of the advocacy support they had been offered by the Children’s Society and the council, the young people – who described the support as a “life-saving opportunity” – decided the best way to represent this was with two outstretched hands reaching towards each other.

The children then added a giant ear to one of the hands, to represent “the opportunity to be heard”. They also added a rainbow between the two palms. The group collectively described the rainbow bridge as “a way for often overlooked and marginalised young people to share what is going on for them”.

The painting includes messages about how the young people wanted to be treated by other people. “We want the phrase ‘children in care’ to be changed because we are just children. We don’t want to be stereotyped,” says one of the young artists. To portray this, the group added a closed book to the canvas to remind children’s services professionals not to “judge a book by its cover” and treat children in care as individuals.

Fire monster
To illustrate some of the painful times they have faced, they created a “fire monster”. Next to the monster they placed a firefighter, whose hosepipe douses the flames with tears, which the group said represented the support of the Children’s Society.

The two-month project finished with the artwork being displayed in a local museum and library. Local councillor Dale Mulgrew says the children’s artwork is “an exhilarating and fascinating use of vivid colours and imagery to symbolise what life is like for these young people.”

The young people involved are also pleased with the results. “What I enjoyed was coming to the group the first time and being able to discuss something private and not feel uncomfortable,” says one member of the group. Another says: “The painting was a very exciting task and we all worked well together without pushing each other or people messing about.”