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’s the impact of ‘behavioural difficulties’ on children and families? / Impact on Urban Health

Close-Up Research, together with Renaisi, were privileged to document the experiences of 18 families who have children with ‘behavioural difficulties’, for Impact on Urban Health.

There is relatively little awareness that for some children, anxiety, distress, and trauma is communicated through their behaviours and interactions with others. So called ‘behavioural difficulties’ are widely misunderstood and carry huge stigma, something we see play out in school exclusion rates and the limited support offered to families.

As such, Impact on Urban Health commissioned this ethnographic research to help them better understand the reality of life for children and families experiencing mental health and behavioural difficulties. You can find our insight report here, the individual written family portraits here, and an audio / podcast case study here.

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?

We utilised the ‘co-discovery’ method for this project, whereby some of the observational footage was shared with the young people, for them to reflect on / give context to. Our findings then complemented a written report by research agency Renaisi, which was published by the Arts Council.

How did the Young Londoners Fund help young people? / Greater London Authority

How is the Violence Reduction Unit’s ‘Stronger Futures Programme’ helping young people? / Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime

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?

Taking a co-design approach, 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 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, 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).

This form of co-designed ethnographic research, which incorporate video diaries, is also sometimes called auto-ethnography or co-creative remote-ethnography.

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.