Revisiting the Young Designers to tell them about their Amazing Tools

A lot has happened since we last saw them and we wanted to show them the impact the tools they designed have made and find out what they think.

The group Laura and Gemma met with included co-​designers, young people who were not involved in the process and two youth workers who supported the residential weekend.  We shared stories about Leapfrog and what they remembered about the weekend at the university and reminded them of the tools they designed.  We showed them a film showing other young people using the tools at school and then gave each of them an info-​graphic style poster that gave five facts about what the tools have done since they designed them.

1. They are award winning.
2. They have been used over 1000 times.
3. They have improved lives.
4. They have been used by other young people (and organisations)
5. They have been downloaded and used as a far as New Zealand.

The group were astounded and excited!  Reactions included “wow” and “I didn’t realise they were that good!”  Everyone used the visual voice tool to respond to the facts visually and some of the responses showed ‘effective tools’, ‘friends’, Dee, Gemma and Laura, ‘pride’, ‘badge tool’ and superheroes.

The youth workers Jason and Debs talked about the tools.   They agreed that since the creation of the BADGE tool they had changed the way they used identity badges and just referred to themselves as a friend when out in public with the young people.  Jason talked about how he had used Storyboard Contract with a different set of stickers and had made his own Topic Tally to use when meeting with young people.

It was great catch up with the young people at CANW and find out what they thought and what everyone was interested in now and doing in the future.  It was particularly great to hear that one of the young carers we worked with had “a real lift” from taking part in the project and was inspired to pursue her talents in writing.  It was a shame we could not catch up with more of the young people who were involved but we understand that as some of them have reached a certain age, they have gone on to different things.  We will make sure that those who couldn’t attend that are still engaged with the service receive the info-​graphic to keep so they can also feel proud of their achievements.