Leeds Animation Workshop
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Project funding
£139,596
Funding round
Set up in 1976, Leeds Animation Workshop is a not for profit company and charity that produces animated videos/DVDs on issues of social importance.
Our Parenting Fund project 'Not too young to grieve' is designed to increase the effectiveness of services to the parents of bereaved children under five years old. We will produce an animated DVD together with extensive support and training materials, which will be widely disseminated and evaluated. It will be suitable for use by parents and carers as well as by organisations providing services for parents. The DVD will also help to focus discussion in groups, workshops and conferences whether for education, training or awareness-raising. The project is in partnership with The Laura Centre, Leicester, the University of Leicester and the Childhood Bereavement Network.
The needs of young children who have been bereaved are often underestimated. Even babies who are not yet speaking will be affected by the death of a close family member. However, their manner of grieving is very different from that of adults and therefore their feelings often go unrecognised. It is not unusual for well-meaning carers, who themselves may be overwhelmed by grief, to avoid talking about the death altogether with small children. This can distort family relationships and have adverse psychological affects on the child in later life
Production of the DVD will be complemented by development of a half-day course for under-fives practitioners. After initial trials, users' notes and course materials will be published.
The first 7500 copies of the resource will be disseminated free of charge. Sure Start programmes and Early Excellence Centres will receive the DVD and the full course materials. In addition, copies of the DVD with the users' notes will be distributed to members of the Childhood Bereavement Network and to public lending libraries. Access to the course will be made available to the public through the Childhood Bereavement Network website.
Evaluation will be an integral part of the project throughout. Following dissemination of the completed resource, the Childhood Bereavement Network will conduct a final evaluation based on user surveys and focus groups.