At Made By Mortals, we are on a mission to improve how children and young people are engaged in health, social care, and social justice research. We are fed up with children’s, and young people’s voices and ideas being left behind or captured in a way that is boring, dull, or even exploitative. From working with research teams, we also know how challenging creative engagement can be to plan and deliver. If we are serious about inspiring children and young people to thrive through taking part in research, however, particularly those from underrepresented communities, we need to start thinking differently about how we engage with them. We also need to ensure that we’re offering an accessible and inclusive process. And a process where children and young people can clearly recognise the benefits of being involved. We need to ensure that we make children and young people feel like equitable partners in the research journey. This takes thought, effort and imagination. So, this is my opportunity to offer the sector some free top tips in doing just that.
For the past five years, Made by Mortals have been successfully involving and engaging children and young people in research. The new knowledge and outputs we have coproduced together have informed numerous findings and reports, featured in several papers, been disseminated to thousands of people across the world, and won several awards. My top tips guide will include some of the things we’ve learned throughout that journey. We are passionate about sharing what we know with others so that everyone can benefit and the world can become a slightly happier, healthier, and fairer place to be.
The guide will help you plan creative activities to engage with children and young people through your research journey. So, you can say goodbye to all those boring questionnaires, surveys and focus groups and say hello to arts-based fun that provides deep insight and benefits everyone involved. Included in the guide will be my ten top tips together with links and examples of the tips in action through Made By Mortals’ work. Also included will be links to finished research outputs coproduced by children and young people that you can use as part of your practice. The contents of the guide will help you plan and deliver engaging activities throughout the research roadmap, including priority setting, data collection, dissemination and knowledge mobilisation. This guide will help you ensure the children and young people you work with will feel like they are being treated with the respect and care they deserve, so they can happily take part in your research project and help you achieve amazing results.
Learn tips on making and using fictional characters and stories. Cleverly integrate personification and metaphors into your engagement process. Ensure the engagement process can stay on track even when working with reluctant or even disruptive voices. Learn methods of placing the child or the young person in the role of the expert and making the best use of music and song.
We hope the guide supports your research engagement plans and helps you make a difference to the causes you care about. Sign up to receive the free guide alongside other free resources through Eventbrite here.
Drop me a line and let me know how you get on.
All the best, Paul ☺️
About the author:
As CEO of Made By Mortals, Paul has supported hundreds of children and young people with a broad range of lived experience to bring their experience to life through participatory arts practice, producing films, audio stories, theatre, music, and interactive workshops. Paul has written and co-written articles about Made By Mortals creative methodology that have been published in Public Money & Management magazine, Child and Adolescent Mental Health journal, and Research Involvement and Engagement journal.
Under Paul’s leadership and using Made By Mortals approach, Made By Mortals children and young people’s work has won Audio Production Awards (Grassroots Production) 2023, Royal Society of Public Health: Health and Wellbeing Awards (Arts in Health) 2022 Outstanding Contribution to PPIE Awards University of Manchester 2022, British Podcasting Awards (Bronze) 2022, BBC Making a Difference Award (Community) 2022, and Digital City Awards (Best Use of Tech by a Non-profit) 2022.
Paul is currently PPI lead on multiple health and social care research projects and Made By Mortals are delivering their creative approach across the research and health and social care sector. Paul is an Honorary Research Fellow in Nursing & Midwifery, School of Health Sciences, at the University of Manchester.
At Made By Mortals, we’re on a mission to make research with children and young people creative, fair, and inspiring. Too often, their voices are left behind – or captured in ways that feel dull, tokenistic, or even exploitative. We believe it can (and should) be different.
Our CEO Paul Hine has created a free Top Tips Guide to help researchers, practitioners, and community partners rethink how they engage children and young people – creatively, collaboratively, and with care.
📅 Resource released 10 November
👉 Sign up here to get the full resource.
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For more information about how Made By Mortals can support your project including a quote, please email admin@madebymortals.org or call 0161 804 2078