Some resources that might help illustrate the ways that communities can be encouraged to get involved and promote their views are taken from the Birmingham University website:
Me and My World; This is for younger children to illustrate to projects; 5 favourite things, 5 worst things, their feelings about food, neighbourhood, being safe / unsafe, how they obtain information and the projects that they access, their wishes for the future and what they would do with majic powers. It's a lovely resource, colourful with fun figures throughout its easy to use even for those less able and has a certificate for using the resource at the end.
My Gardening Diary. This can be adapted for any project and allows children and young people to express their feelings about transport, friends, good / bad things about the project and what has changed for them. Its on a word do and so can be adapted easily. This is described as an example of what can be acheived from use of Clip Art by anyone and was designed by Rachel Hek.
O-Meters is a little more complex. Created by NECF authors this is an exercise which provides the ability to assess an individuals feelings following an exercise within a project. It records how happy or sad a child or young person is feeling using a responsive programme of faces. There are lots of instructions on how to use the programme and a help e-mail address if you have any problems.
My absolute favourite (reproduced in full for June event attendees) is The Evaluator's Cookbook. This is a booklet which contains starters, main courses and desserts; Participatory Evaluation Exercises for use with children and young people - a real opprtunity to get busy with chicken wire, glue and scissors!
Additional ideas may be found in the document Participation models, methods and approaches (Word Document) collated by the Children's Fund Participation Working Group (Spring 2005)
