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Art Activity for National Child Protection Week 2021

NAPCAN > Art Activity for National Child Protection Week 2021

Thank you to all those who have already sent in your beautiful artworks about your communities. We will continue to add the artworks to this page so that everyone can enjoy your creativity and read your wise words.

This year we’d like to invite you to continue sending in your artworks until the start of National Child Protection Week at the beginning of September. Although the deadline for prize winners has passed, we’d still love to see, hear and share what children have to say about their communities.

Enjoy the colour and life of the artworks here, and to be part of this project scroll to the end of the images and read on.

At School Plus Worongary we feel this is an extremely important topic and were interested in getting the children’s perspectives by opening up group time conversations around ‘What they thought would be important if they could design a neighbourhood where everyone had what they needed and felt safe’. As we continued to explore ideas, we were pleasantly surprised at the sense of social justice within the group. M suggested we create a place with food for the homeless, B suggested a charity store so people could buy cheap clothing. Buses were suggested by H in case people didn’t have cars and W suggested ramp access to the library for people in wheelchairs. A vet and dog park were suggested as well as parks, rivers, waterfalls and trees and flowers. Extending on our discussions around what our neighbourhood should look like, the children were given a piece of recycled paper to draw a picture of their neighbourhood idea. Again, it was heartening to see the natural way that the children are inclusive. The children are very pleased with, and proud of, the neighbourhood they have created.

What should our neighbourhood look like?

This year in Child Protection Week (5-11 September) we will be talking about the need to treat all of Australia’s children fairly, by making sure that every neighbourhood has what kids need to thrive and be healthy.

We’re looking for artworks to show what children and young people think about their neighbourhoods. These will then be used in our campaign to help show that protecting children is about working together as a community.

This way we hope to see artworks that are based on meaningful conversations with the children and young people themselves.

What we would need from you:
– Investment in time (probably a few hours) talking to the children about their neighbourhoods and then creating the artwork.
– We would love to see collaborative artworks but we are also happy for children to do individual artworks if they prefer.

What we can offer:
– Certificate of thanks for participating organisations.
– Display of artworks on our website.

Below are some talking points to get you started…

You know your children best, so please feel free to guide your own conversation. The following are just suggestions to get you started.

Tell the children: ‘We want to learn more about what things YOU think are most important in making the place where you live great for your family.’

Explain that it’s not just up to mums and dads to make sure you grow up healthy and well; it’s also up to the whole community to make sure that every family has the things they need.

As an example you could talk about what things make life easier for grownups and kids e.g. if they have jobs and enough money, if they don’t have to drive a long way to school or work, if there are fun free things to do like going to the park, if they have childcare and good schools, if they have healthy shops, and if they have friendly neighbours.

We’d like to get children thinking about all aspects of their neighbourhood and what is important for all families… The following questions might be useful:

– What are the things you like most about your neighbourhood (or what would be in your dream neighbourhood)?
– Where do you like to go for fun with your family or friends e.g. park, library, sport, pool?
– What things in the neighbourhood are important for your parents, or other members of your family?
– What, or who, do you like to see as you walk around? e.g. flowers, pets, other kids, friends, neighbours, favourite shops
– What other things do we all need in a neighbourhood e.g. schools, houses, jobs, roads, doctors etc

Depending on your group, you may like to get the children thinking a bit more deeply about fairness e.g. Do you think that all neighbourhoods have all the things that families need? Do you think that’s fair?

DETAILS:

Draw or paint your artwork on A3 paper or larger.
Email a digital photo of the artwork to contact@napcan.org.au with a short description of who was a part of your group and what they drew and why.

Download the Children’s Art Activity flyer.