I’m Ciara, I’m a keen artist. I study art, but there are some things you can’t just read in a book and become better for it; you need experience. And trust me, I have plenty of that (and that’s not even taking art into consideration). Art is one thing that always stands so strongly in my life. I learn information, I draw. I feel something, I draw. So, when I grew as an artist and discovered more ways to express myself creatively, I found such a release in realising what a powerful tool art can be for myself and others, when used to create change.
In the artwork above, it is likely that we will all see different things in each picture. Why not consider both for yourself first, before reading on to see what I was trying to express and raise awareness of.
“Why keep language that keeps young people out?”
This was the title I gave to the first piece: it was said by a young person at the residential and stuck with me.
I am trying to convey closed off body language, curled up. Their back to a door – the door could be half open or half shut, depending on how you view it like a glass half empty half full situation.
All the words in the piece are labels that a young person has been called, similar to those in Our Hearings, Our Voice’s Articulate Animation
The labels are also things young people find hard to understand. They are like a door; and they can shut them out if care isn’t given to help them understand and feel safe with what’s being said.
All of this comes down to STIGMA STICKS. I see stigma as this gooey, fluid creature: something that follows a young person around, like a shadow. There’s a weight to them; carrying stigma weighs us down and most of all, it sticks. All the language surrounding a young person will feed the stigma monster.
“Language creates realities”
The second piece is based around feeling safe, seen and supported. Things we all deserve to feel. With the right use of language these values can ‘create realities’, a line which was in the Promise.
We can see the effect of the ‘right’ language in the illustration: the young person at the centre has more open body language and is seen from a different perspective – above us but not looking down on anyone. Think about their body language, subtleties of dress and what that can mean, their hood is down. I wanted the young person to look more confident, as a result of their experience of language from others.
The silhouettes form a semi-circle, almost protective, safe. Their forms are strong and built like pillars; a net of people gathered around a young person to solely support them.
I included the bag on purpose; not a black bag, like many have experienced when within the care system, but a backpack. There’s an independence surrounding a backpack: you are going places. You can pack anything you need in there, and it’s so much more personal.
Hidden in the shadow, is the Stigma, that we see in the first piece. It is much smaller, drowned out by all else, but still there. It may take a while to fully counter stigma in language, but that’s not to say it won’t get better, especially with the love, safety and support that even just a change of language can bring: the reality created from it.
The young person stands above it, tall, conquering. I think we all have a chance to be that with the right people and lasting support beside us. The language we all use is such an important part of making sure we all feel safe, seen and supported.
What do you see in these pieces? This might be a general opinion or comments on specific parts of either illustration… There are no rights or wrongs – none at all! I am keen to hear your take on the feelings of both pieces and what they might mean to you. Please email your thoughts to gordon.main@scra.gov.uk
To view more of my artwork, visit my Instagram page: @ciaraillustr8
The language residential is a joint venture between the National Leadership Network, Our Hearings, Our Voice and Each and Every Child, who commissioned this artwork.
Ciara is a board member with Our Hearings, Our Voice (OHOV) and a member of Language Leaders – Children’s Hearings Improvement Partnership
Our Hearings, Our Voice is an independent board for children and young people across Scotland who have experience of Children’s Hearings. Our board members are young people who help scrutinise, change and lead long term improvements to the Hearings System.
Each and Every Child is a new initiative to change hearts and minds on care experience in Scotland. We aim to create a fresh, inspiring narrative to shift public attitudes and improve life chances of children, young people and their families.
National Leadership Network aims to support individuals with care experience to explore leadership in all its shapes and forms through engagement in opportunities that support personal and professional development, social activity, peer support, active citizenship and democratic participation.
Each and every child in Scotland should have what they need to thrive, now and in future. However, we know that there are really common ways in which the public think about care and care experience already, before we even start to share our message, our campaign, our stories, our solutions. These assumptions often aren’t accurate but are shaped by the way stories across media and culture present care experience. These misconceptions can be reinforced by the way we communicate about care experience and the care system – even if we don’t mean to.
We can use framing to tell our stories to combat this. Framing is the choices we make about how we tell our stories: what we share, and how we share them. It’s these choices that change how people think, feel and act. This is all about choosing to tell our stories, and share our ideas, in a different way. How we explain an issue, and what we leave unsaid.
There are some ways of thinking that can make it harder for our messages to land in the way we want them to, when we are looking to create change. These include:
Individualism: thinking that children are taken into care when ‘selfish parents make bad choices’, and that problems within the care system are caused by ‘individuals failing in their responsibilities’. This belief obscures the wider picture – such as the external factors facing families across Scotland, the different reasons why families come into contact with the care system, and how the system itself can be redesigned and improved for children and young people. This is also reflected in the public thinking that ‘young people are responsible for what happens to them’.
Fatalism: the idea that nothing can be done to improve care experience, that the system is broken and can’t be fixed. This is also reflected in an assumption that ‘damage done is damage done’ for people with experience of the care system – that trauma experienced in childhood will impact on them throughout their lives with little possibility of recovery, limiting life chances and access to opportunities. Additionally, people think that the ‘care system’ is ‘standardised and cold’ and therefore fundamentally unable to provide the care that children and young people need. This is also reflected in criticisms of older children and teenagers, who are believed to be responsible for their own actions – and what happens to them.
Together, these mindsets lead people to think about care experience in narrow and stigmatising ways. They encourage us to overlook the potential of wider, systemic change and dismiss people with experience of care as ‘broken products’ of a ‘broken system’. This means that when we are talking about care experience and the care system, if we aren’t careful with how we share information and ideas, we could be inadvertently strengthening ways of thinking that lead to stigma and discrimination.
So, to frame an issue effectively in order to counter stigma and discrimination, and help build understanding within our audience, we need to do the following:
- 1. Understand how people think and feel about this issue before we share information – what are the pre-existing beliefs in play?
- 2. Make deliberate choices when presenting information and telling stories.
- 3. Activate helpful ways of thinking and avoid unhelpful ways of thinking – it’s very hard to argue against a feeling or belief once it’s activated.
- 4. Give your audience ways to think differently about an issue, in ways which make sense to them – tap into common understanding, and shared values.
- 5. Show why taking action matters by aligning solutions with people’s understanding of what the world should be like.
- 6. Show that change is possible as well as necessary, not that problems are huge and overcome by crisis.
Each and Every Child’s framing recommendations have been robustly tested to do all of this. To find out how, please visit our recently refreshed website and framing toolkit – full of information as to how to use the framing recommendations to counter individualistic and fatalist ways of thinking. We have also created new short animations to remind you of each recommendation. And we continue to offer our free framing sessions. These can be booked here or get in touch if you would like to discuss how we can deliver a session for your team or organisation.