Posted on: 14 October 2021
12 children from North Kensington attended a Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service event where they shared their thoughts and ideas on how it could improve its services for children in their community.
The event was open to all 8 to 11-year olds from the community, whether or not they’ve used our services.
It was the first in a series of planned events aimed at working with children to improve the service we offer to children affected by Grenfell.
‘I’d definitely tell my best friend’
On Tuesday the children participated in various art sessions and games before getting involved in giving ideas for how to design the children’s therapy room and waiting area, and testing out virtual reality headsets. During the activities we asked them to share their opinions, experiences and thoughts with us.
[Photo above: Yasmin, one of our teenage Service User Involvement Representatives helped out at the event]
The children said they enjoyed the games, that the group leaders were “fun, kind and amazing” and that they would “definitely tell my best friend.”
Events like these are a great opportunity for children to grow their confidence, learn new skills and make a positive difference by helping to shape services to meet the community’s needs.
After refreshments, they all received a goodie bag with a £10 Westfield voucher as a thank you for their attendance and contribution.
More fun events will be held throughout the year.
The Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service already has an active group for teenagers and young people who work with us to improve services and one of the young people from the teenage group helped to plan and run the children’s event.
Sara Northey, Children’s Therapy Lead at the Service said:
“We have really valued the input of our teenage young ambassadors and adult service user consultants, and wanted to extend the project to include the voices of younger children aged 8 to 11. We are keen to ensure our service is shaped around what they say is important to them. The challenge for us is to try to engage the children in ways that are fun and interesting, rather than lots of dull meetings with professionals! The first event went really well, the children had some brilliant ideas, and we can’t wait to work with them again soon.”
