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“At their heart, good feedback tools help people to tell their stories, regardless of how they end up being used.”
In 2023, Blue Cabin began working with tialt to develop new ways of capturing the impact of our work. Together, we developed a new impact framework and changed the way we present our work in our annual impact report.
Now, three of Blue Cabin’s associate artists are developing playful, trauma informed evaluation tools which participants can use at the end of projects.
Artist Alison McGowan shares her process of developing a creative, accessible way of capturing feedback, opinions and reflections from children and young people.
It was a really interesting and challenging task! As an artist and a child psychotherapist I am very interested in the process of inviting children to reflect and communicate their experiences. I’m aware that reflecting on experience can be particularly tricky for children who may have experienced trauma.
I started this project by reflecting on the process of reflecting itself, and what this can bring up for us.
Simply asking someone to check in with how they are feeling and share this with a group can be a confronting and complex question. Answers to this question will also vary across time, context and change depending on the age and experience of the participant, and the make-up of the group.
I conducted a couple of experiments in some nursery school settings, inviting children aged 3-4 and 4-5 respectively to reflect on a drama and puppetry inspired adventure into space.
When asked to ding a bell and say one thing they enjoyed about our drama ‘adventure’ that had just happened, it became clear that the younger cohort really struggled to connect with and reflect upon their experiences. The 3-4 year olds tended to offer a more general and seemingly unconnected comment such as, ‘I like my Mum’ or ‘Sausages’.
In the groups aged 4-5, the children were more able to understand the task being asked of them and suggest a moment from their space adventure experience that was recognisable or meaningful for them – such as ‘making my space ship’.
In this gentle experiment, the incentive to take part in the reflective evaluation activity was the chance to ding the bell – and everyone wanted to do this!
The notion that any reflective or evaluation activity needed to be engaging and fun was really brought home to me with a DING!
I initially developed three evaluation tool ideas, from which one was shortlisted after trying them out on a Blue Cabin away-day. The tool selected for development was my ‘Small Wins Bunting’ kit, inspired by the idea of desktop bunting that could fit into a matchbox (well almost!).
Each flag of the bunting corresponds with a letter that goes towards spelling the word ‘WINNER!’. A gentle prompt guides you to reflect on positive aspects of your experience e.g. ‘W’ is for Wonder – I wonder what went well for you today?’. The participant writes their reflections on the back of the flag, and the set of flags are hung from a string between two little poles that stick to your desk using white tack.
Small Wins Bunting acknowledges that it can sometimes be difficult for us to reflect positively about ourselves by embracing the concept of ‘small wins’ in life. By focussing our attention on what goes well for us, even in the tiniest of ways, we support our own mental resilience and wellbeing. These small wins also provide important data for Blue Cabin to better understand the positive impacts of their activities and appreciate the values in their work.
It became apparent when trialling the activity that it’s also important to acknowledge that not everything goes well in life and crafting!
That’s where the idea of pants on a washing line came in. Alongside the set of flags to hang on the line there are a couple of pairs of pants to cut out, decorate and hang up, with a view to reflecting on, ‘What went pants for you today?’.
It might seem a bit incongruous on a line of bunting, but the ‘What Went Pants?’ element has proved popular and satisfying – offering participants choice in how the bunting can be individualised and displayed.
I think my dissatisfaction with existing evaluation tools and outcome measures for children in therapy led me to be interested in taking part in this project. I recognise through my clinical work that it can be tricky to ask the right questions or frame them in fun and engaging ways so that children can make meaning for themselves, inform professional practice and help to tailor services.
I am interested in researching children’s experiences and I love the idea of creatively engaging children in reflective processes. I also love making things in miniature as a puppeteer and so the idea of desktop bunting was instantly appealing to me.
As the project developed I recognised how the idea of ‘small wins’ connected to wider ideas around creativity supporting children’s mental health. It’s pleasing to me that this creative evaluation tool helps foster a sense of achievement and resilience to stay positive even when things aren’t going well.
I tested Small Wins Bunting toolkits on adults at some Blue Cabin staff training days, using the resulting feedback to finalise the design and questions.
I also tried and tested a larger scale group bunting activity as part of a Darlington Virtual School activity day, where each child participant was supported to fill in one flag that was hung up to share our successes and celebrate our ‘wins’ as a group.
This proved to be a nice activity, as children who struggled to reflect individually could often connect with others’ ideas and successes. Gradually they began to contribute to the discussion and see themselves as having shared positive experiences and achievements as part of the group.
The large bunting is also a very visible shared statement of success – possibly more easily accessible to carers and project producers to share and collect data from than the mini-bunting which participants take home with them.
Small Wins Bunting is directed towards participants aged 8 and upwards. The kits can be completed one flag at a time over a series of artist’s sessions, or as a stand alone activity at the end of a single artist session.
The bunting sets can be photographed to capture the data, with the participant’s consent. Alternatively, each participant can be invited to contribute one ‘small win’ to a group bunting if that feels more appropriate.
We discovered through our trials of the tool, that participants sometimes reflect upon personal aspects of their experience that they might prefer not to share with the group or Blue Cabin. There is no pressure to share ‘small wins’ if participants prefer not to.
The project took place over an 18 month period and this had advantages and disadvantages.
There was lots of time to try out ideas and incorporate feedback, but it was also challenging for me to keep up momentum at times.
Blue Cabin’s Buddying scheme was really helpful when I got a bit lost or stuck. My buddy was also involved in this project so we often called one another and helped each other along. Jenny (Blue Cabin director) and tialt also fed back at every stage of the process so I really felt part of a bigger team, which was so valuable to me as a freelance artist.
Read more about Blue Cabin’s ‘buddying’ system for its associate artists here>>
I hope Small Wins Bunting will help Blue Cabin to better understand the impact of their creative activities and support participants to reflect on their experiences and relationships in fun and life-affirming ways.
I like that Small Wins Bunting can be used for creative evaluation and that it also works as an enjoyable activity in its own right. Maybe this is key to successful creative evaluation – it touches upon meaningful reflection as a healthy human activity, while simultaneously being applicable to exploring impacts and outcomes as part of a wider evaluation framework.
At its heart, good feedback tools help people to tell their stories, regardless of how they end up being used.
Thank you Alison for sharing this insight!
Discover more creative ways of measuring impact
Associate artists Nic Golightly and Michelle Wood also developed tools to measure impact.
Alison McGowan is a puppeteer and Child Psychotherapist, a Clown Dr and an Associate Artist for Blue Cabin. Alison has a private practice working as a child psychotherapist and loves using puppetry and play to support children to tell their stories. Alison recently adopted a rescue dog called Ronnie who loves long walks.
