RELEVANT EXAMPLES

Below are some examples of project work with young people in different formats, including:

individual family case studies; remote longitudinal video diaries; virtual Zoom visits; anonymised animation; photographic case studies with interviews; and a place-based video, where time was spent at one centre to follow several families.

At the bottom of the page are 1-min snippet versions of three of the videos, made for social media.

What were the impacts of a ‘family innovation fund’? / Essex County Council

Essex County Council launched a ‘Family Innovation Fund’ Early Help programme to help families in volatile situations build resilience, and reduce their reliance on statutory support in the future. The programme was implemented by six different partners across the region, each offering their own intervention service.

As such, Close-Up were commissioned to produce ethnographic video case studies, exploring: what impact, if any, have these interventions had? And where could they be improved?

Above is one of the case studies, following 12-year-old Lewis, who had been experiencing extreme behaviour at home. The case studies complemented and appeared in an interactive evaluation report, written by Traverse, and designed by Close-Up.

What were the impacts of a Cultural Citizens Programme for young people? / Arts Council England

Arts Council England funded a ‘Cultural Citizens Programme’ to promote arts and culture to young people who would not normally have access or an interest.

For this ethnographic study, we followed a group of students from Liverpool, to find out: what was it like being on the programme, what were its impacts, and how could it be improved?

Our findings complimented a written report by research agency Renaisi, which was published by the Arts Council.

What are the transport Experiences of Young People with Mobility Issues? / Flourish

Flourish is a multi-sector collaboration to advance the successful implementation of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) in the UK.

As part of a public engagement and research project for Flourish, carried out by Traverse, we were commissioned to produce an insight film based on video diaries. We asked six young people with mobility issues, from across England, to record diaries that documented their different transport experiences over a month, and reflect on how their experiences might differ if travelling by driverless car.

(Due to the impracticality of self-filming whilst travelling, the diaries are based around the before and after of each journey.)

What are the impacts of an international exchange programme? / British Red Cross

The ‘Inspiring Active Communities’ programme allows Red Cross volunteers from one country, to live on placement in another. Volunteers are expected to support the integration of people at increased risk of social isolation – such as the elderly, refugees and migrants, and those with disabilities – and to develop activities which promote volunteering, as a way to build individual and community resilience.

Year one of this two-year evaluation project involved visiting volunteers in person. Because of COVID-19 restrictions in year two, we switched to remote fieldwork. That involved video and photo diaries, and follow-up Zoom calls. The video above is one of our case studies, with Camilla – an English university graduate on placement in France. Our case studies accompanied a written report, by research agency Renaisi.

What’s it like for young people living in temporary Housing? / Children’s Rights Alliance for England

Thousands of children without permanent homes are growing up in B&Bs, spending months and sometimes years there. As such, the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), wanted to us to find out and communicate: what’s life like for young people experiencing this kind of temporary housing?

We worked with several young people who had lived in temporary housing, to understand what life had been like for them, and come up with a respectful and effective way to communicate their experiences.

To protect the young people’s privacy, no faces are shown. But the voices you hear are not performed, they’re from authentic interviews with the participants, who also helped out on set during filming as part of a ‘co-production’ process.

For maximum traction, we titled the video ‘Thousand of British Children Live Like This’, and the film was shown to MPs at the House of Commons.

What are the impacts of an after-school support charity? / Into University

IntoUniversity runs after-school centres that provide academic support, mentoring and other constructive activities, for young people from less privileged backgrounds, to help them either attain a university place or purse another chosen aspiration.

As part of the charity’s 2019 evaluation report, we were commissioned to spend a month visiting one centre, in Brent, to create an in-depth ethnographic video case study about the place and its impact.

The results were incorporated into an Impact Report, assured by PwC, and a full qualitative Impact on Attainment report by Renaisi.

We then spent a few months taking photo portraits, with interviews, of 21 IntoUniversity students in their homes across the UK. For the portraits, we decided to take the theme of ‘what brings you most joy’. You can see some of the resulting portraits, with interview snippets, below.

WHAT MAKES YOUNG PEOPLE HAPPY? / INTO UNIVERSITY

IntoUniversity runs after-school centres that provide academic support, mentoring and other constructive activities, for young people from less privileged backgrounds, to help them either attain a university place or purse another chosen aspiration.

To find out more about the young people who attend their centres, IntoUniversity commissioned our director Elliot to visit families across the country, and take photo portraits, with interviews, of 21 IntoUniversity students in their homes. For the portraits, we decided to take the theme of ‘what brings you most joy’. Here’s a selection of the results.