Preston COS were recently successful in obtaining a £500 grant from the Lancashire Covid Fund as part of their work with the children and young people of local refugees and asylum seekers. Aware of the many implication that the Covid pandemic poses for children and young people, and acknowledging that these can be very different from the experiences of adults, Preston COS were keen to capture the voices of the children from refugee families that live in the Preston area. Children and young people have been encouraged to submit entries using a range of mediums. To date these have included art work, short videos, poems, stories and craft items. Using the grant money every child or young person who enters is given a £5 voucher and a certificate of appreciation. Committed to ensuring that no child was excluded we have put together resource packs of various craft items that children can use to assist in producing their work. A refugee parent has translated the publicity leaflet into Arabic and through local networks we have attempted to widely distribute information about the project.

Some of the fantastic results of the initiative can be seen on our cloud drive.
We are hoping to show case the work, hopefully in our local library amongst other places. Eventually we will pass on entries to the Lancashire Record Office as part of their work around the impact of the pandemic in Lancashire, by doing so we hope that the rich voices of refugee and asylum seeking children will be captured. Moreover the project has allowed children an opportunity to explore their feelings and fears of what has been such a challenging and sometimes surreal time for them and their families. It has also enabled us to talk to their families about the need to stay safe, ways of reassuring their children and address other concerns

Dawn Judd
On behalf of Preston COS