Child Friendly Leeds have launched a campaign co-designed by children and young people to raise awareness of hidden disabilities.
Go to the Raising awareness of disabilities campaign page on the Child Friendly Leeds website for all the details.
Child Friendly Leeds is the Leeds City Council network and collective of ambassadors and partners who are “working together to make Leeds a child friendly city”.
There are 12 Child Friendly Leeds wishes. These 12 wishes were refreshed in 2022 and represent the voices of 80,000 children and young people from across Leeds.
Wish 12 for the city is… Leeds is an inclusive city for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
There is work taking place within Leeds City Council on Wish 12 right now, lead by their ‘Wish Leads’. The short-term priorities are:
- increase awareness of different disabilities through the Local Offer and projects.
- more activities and places to go that are accessible.
The long-term priorities are:
- more awareness and understanding of different disabilities through developing child-friendly posters about disabilities with CYP and adapting the NHS England SEND training framework for Leeds.
- more activities and places to go that are accessible to all through highlighting which parks are accessible on leeds.gov website and using disability register data to tailor activities in local areas.
The Poster Project
After speaking to children and young people to find out what they would like to share with others about their disabilities, what makes them unique, and how we can make a difference – there was a clear message was around raising awareness of disabilities – especially hidden disabilities.
This kickstarted an art project, where young people expressed their personalities and uniqueness through art and were asked “What do you want others to know?” The artwork created by young people was used to create three informative posters. The sessions have been extremely eye opening in which we collated fantastic art work, spoken word and the feedback from young people and the staff.
To showcase the project, the three posters along with all the original artwork by young people, are being displayed in a unit inside the Merrion Centre 18th-24th May 2024. Alongside the exhibition of the art, you will also be able to hear the voices of a few young people who chose to create poetry.
What next?
The three posters, inspired by young people’s ideas and designs, will be distributed across Leeds to help spread awareness of the perspective of young people in Leeds with hidden disabilities. The aim is to have these posters up in Community Hubs; Schools and Learning Settings; GP practices; and many more.
You can download the posters for display on the campaign page on the Child Friendly Leeds website.
you can support the project by sharing it.
