Photography students from Stratford-upon-Avon College have taken part in an interactive project focused on lockdown mental health in partnership with Lifespace Trust, a Warwickshire based charity that offers one-to-one mentoring for children and young people.
The wellbeing work experience week allowed students to combine their College assignment work with work experience as they utilised skills acquired on their course. The project included a brief from Lifespace Trust which required students to produce one negative and one positive photo.
Credits left to right: Ellisha Barnett, Joe Taylor, Daisy Perry, Derry McSweeney
Students got involved with workshop activities from home focused on meditation, family games nights, exercise schedules, cooking, film clubs and a whole lot more. Students documented their experience and produced presentations highlighting the thoughts and feelings the activities had provoked in them.
Photography lecturer, Sophie Jolly, who put together the schedule explains: “The activities were inspired by students and I discovered so many new things about them – we have some amazing bakers and some very skilled painters! The students engaged positively with all the sessions and thoroughly enjoyed them.”
Credits left to right: Tom Cannon, Phoebe W, Meg Edwards, Alex Paddock
Rachel Key, CEO of Lifespace Trust comments: “This project highlighted the creativity of the students, their compassion for other people and their resilience, with all of them finding positives as well as negatives in a very challenging time. The powerful portfolio of work reflects our experience that the impact of lockdown has been different for each young person, based on who they are, where they live and what they enjoy doing. I am so grateful that we can use these images to support our messages on mental health and wellbeing.”
Lifespace Trust will be using the students’ work in their publications and social media to share positive messages and offer support to young people.
