Family Mosaic ‘Crossroads’ Leaflet
A leaflet created and designed by young people living in our supported housing schemes
Family Mosaic house and support 126 young people aged 16-25 in Essex, in 9 supported housing schemes spread across the county. Their accommodation is either self-contained flats or hostels. The young people have diverse backgrounds and include a number of care leavers and people who have experienced homelessness and stay with us 6 – 24 months.
Feedback from both the tenants and staff was that information we provide in Welcome Packs was seldom read by tenants – they wanted colourful, eye-catching literature which seemed relevant to them. When we suggested to tenant reps that we may be able to arrange for them to create and design a leaflet for new tenants, that we could include in our Welcome Packs, they thought it was a great idea.
How we did it
1. Sent a questionnaire out to all the schemes with the following questions:
- How they felt when they had first moved into their Family Mosaic schemes
- How they felt they had changed since living in their schemes
- What their top tips would be for tenants moving in
- If there was anything they didn’t know when they fist moved in, that they wished they had been told.
- Whether they would be interested in being part of a group to design the leaflet
2. Along with the questionnaire we sent out disposable cameras to the tenants so they could take photos to be used in the leaflet
3. Past experience has been that prolonged commitment to activities has been an issue. To combat this we arranged a single design day with a local design company, and invited all the tenants that had expressed an interest. We picked a Saturday because feedback from young people in the past has been that they have been unable to take part in activities held on weekdays because of commitments to work or college.
4. The design company came in with their laptops and giant plasma screen, so people could have ago on the software and see their ideas take shape.
5. On the day 7 tenants from 4 of the schemes attended.
6. The information from the questionnaires was collated and the young people decided what messages they felt were the most important from the ideas.
7. The tenants were all given a gift voucher as a reward for taking part. This was not advertised prior to the day, because we wanted people who genuinely wanted to take part, regardless of financial incentive.
8. The tenants called their leaflets Crossroads, because they felt that when they move into one of our schemes they are at a crossroads in their lives.
9. The expertise of the design company was really valuable for giving the young people ideas of what they could achieve. For example they came up with the top trumps idea, which was great because everyone got to design something that reflected their individuality.
The outcomes
As well as an experience for tenants outside those offered by usual support, feedback from the 7 that came along was:
What they enjoyed most:
- Working as a team
- Meeting other young people from different schemes
- Hearing other peoples ideas and views
- Designing the front page
What they got out of the day:
- New friends
- Learning how other tenants live
- Pride in helping design the new leaflet
Skills they learnt on the day they think they will use in the future:
- Brainstorming to develop new ideas
- Communication skills to make new friends
For the association, the leaflet has many more uses than we originally envisaged. As well as being in Welcome Packs, the leaflet has been passed to:
- Referral panels
- Social Services teams
- Prospective new tenants
- Connexions
Click to download as document
