A Warwickshire arts initiative and young people from the area have collaborated with Warwickshire County Council on a poster campaign to help reduce the spread of Covid-19.
The county council’s Public Health service has worked with grass roots organisation Escape Arts and Warwickshire’s young people to create the posters.
The online peer-to-peer poster project, called We Can Do This Together, was led by Escape Arts apprentice Morgana Gautier and delivered in consultation with young people across Escape Arts’ local community in Stratford.
Each of the posters designed shows colourful visuals alongside short and clear instructions to help educate people on behaviour to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The posters have different creative styles but all have younger audiences in mind, and put forward how changing behaviours to be more Covid-safe will help people return to a more normal way of life in the near future.
Morgana Gautier, Events Assistant Apprentice at Escape Arts, said: “Covid-19 has really divided us and isolated so many of us. Through this online poster series, we have been able to share some of the key messages from Escape Arts’ young people to other young people across Warwickshire – that they aren’t alone, and how they can support the bigger picture towards reducing the spread of Covid-19.
“Young people want to experience, live, and try new things, but most of all to share these experiences with friends and family. We wanted the key messaging of this poster project to be something that Warwickshire’s young people are involved in and take ownership for.
“Only by working together can we unite our efforts and prevent Covid-19 from both defining our futures and from living our best lives.”
The Escape Arts Covid-19 poster project is one of ten short-term community engagement projects funded by Public Health’s micro-grants programme and supported by Warwickshire County Council.
Each project has worked with active community grass roots organisations to share appropriate behaviour-specific messages with a range of identified vulnerable groups.
Emily Van der Venter, Associate Director of Public Health for Warwickshire County Council, said: “The objective of each community engagement project is to undertake localised Covid-19 messaging based on timely and accurate information. This information comes from local intelligence and guides the work undertaken in each project. The messages we promote through these projects can also be adapted as new findings and priorities are recognised from local data patterns.
“Community engagement work has been part of Public Health’s wider outbreak management plan, to reduce both the incidence and impact of Covid-19. It really helps us to spread awareness and key messages to otherwise hard-to-reach audiences, supporting ongoing efforts towards containing the virus, and reaching out to as many people as we can across Warwickshire’s local communities to stay safe, well and connected.”
Escape Arts delivers a number of arts and heritage-led projects to help young people learn about inclusion, integration, and independence in order to support their wellbeing.
Article originally appeared on the Rugby Observer.
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