Animation offers a novel and imaginative way of talking indirectly about sensitive, personal experiences.
- Valerie Dunn
The film – Finding My Way – was made by a group of young people in Cambridgeshire who were themselves facing the challenge of leaving care. As well as helping them explore their own thoughts and feelings, the film will give social workers and foster carers a better insight into the issues involved.
According to Valerie Dunn of the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychiatry and NIHR CLAHRC East of England, who led the project: “We talk very casually about coming into care and leaving care, but only those who have been through it can tell us what it’s really like. Our research focuses on the emotional health of young people leaving care, so we thought that inviting them to make a film would give us – and perhaps them too – a deeper understanding than traditional tick-box questionnaires.”
Working with a team of professionals, seven young care leavers produced the film at a four-day summer school organised in partnership with the Cambridgeshire Film Consortium.
Watch a clip and read the full story
Image: Still from animation "Finding My Way"
Credit: University of Cambridge
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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