Draw Your Own Solution, a campaign to help young people in Kent aged 10-16 become more aware of what resilience is, and how to increase their levels of resilience, to bounce back from any back-to-school challenges, launches this week (Monday, August 24).
This second phase of the National Lottery Funded campaign is part of Kent County Council and HeadStart Kent’s mission to improve the resilience of young people and families, by developing the knowledge and skills required to increase emotional health and wellbeing.
The campaign promotes personal stories from young people on how they build resilience, to help them bounce back from tough times. A particular focus has been given to making small changes to improve health and understand emotions and behaviours.
The campaign will run for five weeks and will be advertised through a variety of channels
Headstart will be launching a free online webinar for parents to understand how to support their child to build resilience, build resilience themselves as a parent and to understand how to help their child through the challenges of the back-to-school period during COVID-19.
Research conducted for the campaign showed that parents believed their child’s resilience had decreased significantly during COVID-19 and just under a quarter of parents surveyed said their child slept badly. Over half stated their child was often not physically active. During lockdown, more respondents indicated their child becomes emotional, distant or angry when going through a tough time.
Parent Helen from Ashford said: “COVID-19 has been tough on everyone, but it’s also an opportunity for me and my child to build resilience, to learn from the good and bad times.
“HeadStart Kent and Draw Your Own Solution will help us to build resilience and get through any challenges the back-to-school period faces.”
Draw Your Own Solution aims to help young people in Kent bounce back from any back-to-school challenges
Research with young people showed they were increasingly trying to eat healthier, become more active and would like to improve their sleep. However, they often found it hard to speak to an adult about their feelings.
William, 12, from Ashford, said: “In lockdown, I helped my resilience by making sure I ate better. We tried new foods using recipes and whilst we cooked we talked about all of the things that were worrying me. I slept better as I then wasn’t worrying about things at night-time. I like the Draw Your Own Solution campaign as it gives me more tips to try to build my resilience to bounce back”
The campaign will run for five weeks through a variety of channels; bus sides across Kent, Spotify radio adverts, TikTok and Snapchat videos, posters in community settings and mobile advertising.
The parent’s webinar can be accessed from the Draw Your Own Solution Website.
For more information, visit drawyourownsolution.com
Campaign merchandise has been provided to organisations that provide lunches for children over the summer period, to distribute to young people.
NOTES TO JOURNALISTS:
- The Draw Your Own Solution campaign has been commissioned by Kent County Council and HeadStart Kent. The campaign launched in March 2020 and will run until the end of the year. The campaign aims to support young people to build resilience in four areas; health, emotions and behaviours, hobbies and interests and friendships.
- You can find out more about the campaign for young people at drawyourownsolution.com
- To support the campaign as a school or parent, you can visit drawyourownsolution.com/support
- Kent is one of the largest local authorities in the UK, and home to nearly 1.6m people. Kent County Council delivers services that impact on the lives of every single person in Kent. Working in partnership to make sure we commission the right services and ensuring that every pound spent in Kent is delivering better outcomes for Kent’s residents, communities and businesses. KCC works with people who need care and support; aims for Kent to be the best place for children and young people to grow up and achieve and plays a major role in making Kent a better place to live, work and visit.
HeadStart Kent is part of Kent County Council’s Integrated Children’s Services and aims to help young people cope better when faced with difficult circumstances in their lives, preventing them from experiencing common mental health problems. The programme is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, providing resources to develop approaches that support young people to develop their own resilience and cope with the everyday pressures they may face throughout their lives.
Hitch Marketing Ltd deliver commercial and social marketing solutions. Insight-driven, focusing on target audiences and creating outcomes to meet needs, whilst building client capacity and capability. They cover all the bases – from research to design and strategy to cutting-edge digital solutions – shaping interventions from start to finish. For more information visit their website or follow their Twitter and Instagram.
Kent County Council – Kent is one of the largest local authorities in the UK, and home to nearly 1.6m people. Kent County Council delivers services that impact on the lives of every single person in Kent. Working in partnership to make sure we commission the right services and ensuring that every pound spent in Kent is delivering better outcomes for Kent’s residents, communities and businesses. KCC works with people who need care and support; aims for Kent to be the best place for children and young people to grow up and achieve and plays a major role in making Kent a better place to live, work and visit.